Babysitting 101
by whatifellinlovewith
Summary: Before feeling comfortable enough to try for a baby, Kate feels she must get over the phobia she has of being alone with kids, so Castle organizes a weekend over which she'll babysit four children, in order to help her get over that fear. The only problem is, the kids aren't exactly fond of babysitters, and are rather fond of pranks.
1. Prologue

_**Babysitting 101**_

* * *

**Richard Castle.**

* * *

"You'll tell me when you're ready to have a baby, right?"

It's such an odd thing to bring up, so sudden and out of the blue and he knows she probably has no idea what he's talking about or why he's suddenly asking her about a moment that, ever since they got married, has seemed so distant.

But he has to know. And now, as she's laying in his arms, the credits of a movie rolling down the screen in front of them, her sweet-smelling hair tickling his nose, just seems like a good time. Because it's in these moments, intimate and domestic, that the images of having children with her truly begin to fill his mind.

She's tense in his arms, though, the soft caress of her hand on his arm replaced with an oddly tight squeeze. She's still facing the television in front of them, though he imagines that she's frowning. Whether it's in confusion or anger, though, he can't deduce without seeing her eyes.

"I mean, we said that we weren't gonna try right away," he tries to explain when she does nothing but lay there, tense, "but we also said we'd tell each other when we're ready. And I know it's only been six months, but I just want to make sure that, when you _are_ ready, you will tell me." He tries to shrug, to seem indifferent, but she's still pressed against him, restricting his movements.

She turns in his arms, rolling onto her back. Her side is not pressed to his chest, wedging him between her body and the back of the couch. His arm is trapped beneath her, in the curve of her neck. And his other hand, unintentionally despite their current conversation, falls to rest on her stomach. She doesn't react to it.

"What brought this on, Castle?" she asks instead, her fingers wrapped around his forearm, and though her words are soft and curious, he can see the worry swirling in the depths of her hazel eyes. It makes him regret even bringing it up, but he knows he must answer her question, or this will continue to bother her.

"Ryan," he answers truthfully. "He was talking earlier, at the precinct, about how Sarah Grace's second birthday is coming up and Jenny is talking about how they should think about trying for another one soon," he continues, hoping she remembers the conversation he's talking about. Her nod makes it seem like she does. "And it just got me thinking about you, and about when we might start our family."

She smiles slightly, but then her face falls serious again and she squeezes his arm. "Is this you telling me you're ready?" she asks, her words still holding the same soft and curious tone, but the worry seems even more evident in her eyes and he's really not sure what to tell her.

So he tells her the truth.

"Kate, I've wanted to have kids with you for years," he whispers, making sure he keeps his voice soft, in part so she knows how serious he is, in part so the words don't absolutely terrify her. "But I know you're never _ready_ to have a baby. It's just not something you can truly prepare for, because it turns your life upside down, planned or not." His hand slips from her stomach and he squeezes her side gently. "But, I think I'm as ready now as I'll ever be."

She sighs at the words, her eyes falling closed and her chest rising and falling. When her eyes open again, though, he's surprised to see that most of the worry has faded, and is replaced now by a mixture of apprehension and confusion. He squeezes her side again in silent encouragement, knowing she'll tell him what's on her mind.

"I know I'll never be completely ready, Castle," she whispers. Her eyes are locked on his, her fingers digging into the muscles of his forearm. "Especially because I'm me and I overanalyze everything, especially major, life altering decisions. I know I do. And I know this is no different." She takes another deep breath. "And I feel like I'm even more...scared because I don't have my Mom here to help me."

Her free hand comes up to cover her face as though she's embarrassed, and his heart actually aches for her, like it does every time she expresses how much she misses her mother. He squeezes her side again, and manages to bed his arm, although it's uncomfortable, to rest his hand over hers and tear her fingers away from her face, letting his arm fall back into place, bringing her hand with it.

"Hey, it's okay to be nervous. You have no idea how scared I was when Meredith told me she was pregnant. Of course, that wasn't planned and, at that point, I wasn't even sure how I actually felt about Meredith, but still. Deciding to have a baby, to bring a life into this world, is a big deal," he assures her.

"I know," she responds. "And I know you're going to make an amazing Dad." The smile that spreads across her face at the words is loving and genuine. "And you keep insisting that I'm going to make an amazing Mom, despite my admitted apprehension about babies." Her smile fades slightly as she speaks of herself, and he squeezes her fingers to reassure her.

She _will_ make an amazing mother, no matter what she thinks.

"I'm just not sure if I'm as ready as I'll ever be," she adds, squeezing his arm again as though asking him to tell her that she is. "You said you're as ready now as you'll ever be, but I don't know if I am. I think I could be more ready. I think there's just this one part of me that feels like there's something missing before I can actually say I'm as ready as possible, and I don't know what it is that's missing."

She's frowning now, as though upset with herself for not being absolutely certain about her feelings, as though she's actually supposed to be positive about her feelings when he just sprung this on her, out of the blue.

So, he squeezes her hand and presses a soft kiss to her hairline, smiling at the soft sigh of contentment she emits. And then, with his hand on her side, he pulls her a little tighter against him, squeezing the flesh beneath his palm as he does so. She's smiling again, soft and sweet, as though even his simple actions have calmed her racing mind. He knows they might have, considering how well she can calm his nerves with the simplest of touches.

"Well, how about we sleep on it, and then tomorrow, we can try and figure out what's missing, and if it's something we can try and fix, if you want," he suggests, smiling down at her in what he hopes is a reassuring manner.

She seems to be calm, because she nods at his suggestion and leans up to press a soft kiss to his lips. His hand finds the curve of her jaw and he kisses her again before pressing his lips to the tip of her nose and settling back down behind her, still holding her close when she turns back onto her side.

* * *

They don't get to talk about it until dinner. A case came in during the early hours of the morning, and they were off to the crime scene before seven a.m. And then their day consisted of canvassing, waiting for autopsy results and trying to find any possible leads, including following up with the neighbors who expressed any sort of knowledge as well as the victim's family. In fact, at the end of the day, he was actually surprised when she suggested that they take a fresh look at the case tomorrow, and leave before the clock struck seven.

It's when they get home that he realizes why, despite having an open case at the precinct, she was okay with leaving so early. Alexis and Martha are out, and almost as soon as he begins taking leftovers from last night out of the fridge, he feels the nerves radiating off her as she lingers behind him, waiting for the conversation they planned.

He sets the container of pasta in the microwave and quickly turns it on before turning back to herself looks surprised as she pours the wine at the kitchen island, surprised that he's not simply waiting for the food to be warmed up. Together, they venture into the living room to take their normal seats. When they're seated, he reaches out and takes her hand in his, squeezing her fingers and smiling at her, the facial expression perfectly, but unintentionally, punctuated by the buzzing of the microwave behind them.

"How about we skip the wine tonight?" he suggests. And though Kate Beckett has a definite soft spot for the earthy flavors of expensive red wine, she nods and smiles as though silently thanking him for suggesting it so she didn't have to. He nods in a silent 'you're welcome' manner, and squeezes her fingers before releasing her hand to go and retrieve the container of pasta from the microwave.

He re-enters the living room a couple minutes later with a plate balancing on each of his palms. She turns to face him, smiling at the sight and reaching out to take one of the plates from him, obviously not caring which one. She sets the plate down on the crook of her knee, not moving to take the fork in her hand, or to take a bite. He knows she wants to talk, that the distraction that comes with any serious discussion outweighs her desire to eat.

So, when he sits down next to her, he reaches over and takes both his plate and hers in his hands, leaning over to sent them on the coffee table in front of him. She doesn't resist, confirming his previous assumptions. And when he leans back against the cushion, his hand falls to rest on her knee, his thumb pressed against the hard ridge of her patella, his fingers squeezing the flesh at the bend of her leg.

"You wanna talk about it?" he asks, smiling at her, hoping she understands that she really doesn't have to if she doesn't want to, and that they can set this conversation aside and revisit it when she's ready. He hopes she understands that he's not trying to pressure her into anything, that there's nothing wrong with her, nothing they have to fix, and no rush to start trying for a baby.

So, he's half surprised when she catches her lower lip between her teeth shyly and does, eyes locked on his, sure and steady in the dim light of the living room.

But he can't not talk about it if she wants to, so he just squeezes her knee and nods back at her. "Okay."

She smiles up him slightly, leaning against the soft cushions of the couch. "Okay," she echoes, her words soft and light and that surprises him, too, because she's usually more apprehensive about having such serious conversations. She's admitted that herself. "I was thinking about it, last night...about that..._thing_ that might be missing," she admits. Her hand rests above his on her leg, her fingers forcing themselves between his palm and her knee. "And I think I figured out what it is."

He feels his brows rise at her words, as they reach his ears and are processed by his mind. Kate isn't one for self-analysis. She doesn't think about herself, not when trying to make decisions, and not to figure out the intricate aspects of her complex personality. She doesn't stand in front of the mirror after a long day at work and try to figure out what she would do in any given situation, and why. She's more simple than that, understands that she'll never understand every thought that goes through her mind, or every piece of her that doesn't seem to fit.

But he also smiles, because the fact that she _did_ look deep within herself to find that missing piece tells him one things for certain. She is truly serious about this, about getting to a point where she's as ready as possible to have a baby. And that makes his heart skip a beat, because he remembers a day when he thought they would never get to this point, a point where she wants to have his child, so much so that she's doing things out of her normal to reach that.

"You do?" he manages to say. His words are as soft as hers, floating through the room light in tone but heavy with meaning.

She nods, "I do." And then she shifts on the couch so she's leaning forward, open and ready to share the results of her reflection. "You know how most girls either have younger siblings...or have babysat or something, even younger cousins, _something_?" she asks, her eyes determined, knowing and sure. "But I've never done anything like that. I have no younger siblings, and no cousins that I'm close with. And I definitely never did any babysitting work, considering how crazy a parent would have to be to leave a teenage _me_ in charge of their child."

He's surprised by how light her tone is, soft and sweet, like she's not in anyway insulting herself or regretting what she speaks, but that she's simply stating a fact. It vaguely reminds him of the tone of her voice when she gets off the phone, slapping the receiver back into place and leaning back in her seat, turning to tell him whatever new information she has. But the circumstances are so very different.

"You have the day with Cosmo," he points out, "and you were great with him, no matter how much experience you say you lacked." He squeezes her knee, and the fingers that are wedged beneath his palm.

"I know. I'm not talking about babies right now, babe," she responds. It's another statement of fact, strong and sure as she leans even farther into him, open and ready to fight to be ready. "Cosmo taught me that I can handle a baby, that I would be as good a mother as any first time mother would." She smiles at the memories, and he smiles, too, at the image of her cradling little cosmo in her arms, singing the baby to sleep. "Right now, Castle, that missing piece I was talking about, it's about _kids_. Actual kids. As in a person older than four and younger than twelve."

He's shocked by her words, by not only the fact that she has figured it out, but that _this_ is the thing that's scaring her out of being ready to have a baby. And he says the first, stupid thing that comes to mind. "We wouldn't have a kid right away."

But she laughs, even as he regrets the words. "I know," she says. "I know that. I know that even if we threw out all precautions today and got pregnant at the first possible opportunity, it would be years before we had a _kid_." She squeezes his hand. "But every _parent_ I've ever talked to, including you, says that they grow up so fast, that one day you have a newborn and next thing you know you have a ten year old begging for a cellphone." He chuckles softly, and her own laughter mingles with it before she grows completely serious. "I don't want to wake up one morning and realize I have no idea how to treat or relate to my own child."

He really can't picture that happening, knows from experience that you grow as a parent with your child. He knows that as your child transfers from cribs and pacifiers to toys and potty training, you seem to follow effortlessly. Scared, yes. It's always so frightening to enter a new stage as a parent. But even as immature and alone as he was every single time Alexis reached a major milestone, he had never really not known what to do with her. He always knew what she wanted, what she liked, what to expect. And despite their obvious differences, his daughter has never told him that she feels like he doesn't relate to her.

So he really can't see Kate being unable to connect and relate to their child. Alexis is quite possibly the stark opposite of him, the responsible to his impulsive, the mature to his childish, and they still relate, perhaps better than most parents do with their children. And Kate is a master at reading people, and is so amazing that he can't see her failing at anything, especially not being a mother.

But he doesn't tell her that. Instead, he offers what he thinks she might want to hear. "Then we'll get you that experience with kids that you think is missing." Her brow furrows, so he explains. "I have a couple of friends with kids who fit into that age group. I'm sure if I asked they would let you babysit for a weekend. Four kids, all different. You spend a weekend with them, prove to yourself that you can do it." He squeezes her leg again. "Just like the night with Cosmo, but slightly longer...and with kids."

He half expects her to laugh at the suggestion. But she actually looks like she's considering it. And when her eyes meet his, they're sure, as sure as the nod that accompanies the lock of their eyes.

"Okay," she says. "We can try that."

He smiles, and can't resist the urge to lean over and press a quick kiss to her lips. "Okay," he echoes. "I'll set it up." She smiles back at him, and presses another kiss to his lips. When they separate, he squeezes her hand again, and whispers to her. "Be ready, though. This weekend is going to be a crash course in Babysitting 101."

* * *

**This story actually stems from a prompt from a friend: la z boy here on fanfiction, who was also my beta for this story. So thank you to him. **


	2. Chapter 1

**_Babysitting 101_**

* * *

**Katherine Beckett.**

* * *

She's pacing the floor, out of nervousness more than anything else, and she knows it. Walking from the end of the couch, her toes brushing against the tightly pulled fabric, to the door that remains closed. Her arms are crossed over her chest, fingers clenching at the skin above her ribs. The arches of her feet are starting to ache, her toes tensing with every step, her calves burning. Her heart beats wildly in her chest.

And she feels so stupid for it, because, really, she's faced a lot worse than a few kids. She's faced serial killers and people who have attempted to kill her. She's faced murder suspects and deranged senators and drug dealers who wanted nothing more than to make her life miserable. And she walked into those situations head held high, adrenaline thudding through her veins, gun poised in her hands. She was confident in those situations.

And now, _now_ she's pacing the floor, a nervous wreck, all because of four kids. _Kids_. Not murder suspects, not people trying to kill her. They're just kids. And yet she's here, walking back and forth, ignoring Castle's remarks about how she's going to pace a hole into the floor if she doesn't stop, because of four kids. Four kids who will be getting here soon, who will spend this weekend depending on her.

Her fingers tighten around her own skin, nails digging into her flesh painfully as she stomps her foot and turns violently back towards the door.

Kids are definitely scarier than murderers, no matter what everyone else says.

"Kate, are you sure you want to do this?" asks Castle. He's sitting on the couch, and she feels his eyes following her with every move, every step, worried. "I mean, I promised Elizabeth and Sam babysitting for the weekend, but if you don't want to do this alone, I can stay." He's suggested it at least ten times already, and she shakes her head quickly against thin air, squeezing her eyes shut as she pauses in front of the door.

"I can do this," she insists, forcing her eyes to open. The door stares back at her, and she waits for the knock to come. It doesn't, and she groans, turning on her heel to face him again. "I can. I just... I'm nervous, okay? I've never even met these kids and now I have to spend a whole weekend with them, _responsible_ for them?" She forces herself to take a deep breath, her eyes falling closed as she does so. "It's just...nerve wracking."

"I understand, Kate," he promises. Her eyes are still closed, but she hears the shuffling of his feet against the floor. She doesn't bother to open her eyes, knowing he's coming towards her. His hands settle on her upper-arms. "I know it's scary, Kate. Trust me. I'm just saying that, if you're not ready for this, we can wait. We can do a weekend together before you have to be alone with them, if that's what you want."

She forces herself to open her eyes, forces herself to look into his. "No, Castle. I'm fine. I _will_ be fine," she tells him, though her arms are still crossed over her chest defensively and her heart is still hammering in her chest. "I've handled worse than this, and you know it. I just... It's new. I've never done this before." She blinks once then shrugs, letting her hands drop to her sides for the first time in what must be at least an hour. "I just want this to work out, so I can be as ready as possible."

He smiles down at her, as though her words have made something build within him. It's like her words have comforted him, made him stop worrying about her, and she silently wonders how much he really wants them to start their family. Secretly, the realization that he really wants this makes her happy, too, because she kinda really wants it as well. It's the only reason she's going through all this, and not taking him up on his offer to help.

He presses his lips to her forehead, and she feels their warmth linger there for a second before he pulls away, his hands still resting on her upper arms. She smiles up at him. He smiles back down at her, and his hands travel from her shoulders down to her elbows, and he squeezes gently. He's still smiling as he wraps his arms around her, hands resting between her shoulder blades, pulling her against him. She wraps her arms around his waist and rests her head against his chest.

"You _can_ do this," he says, his voice soft as a whisper, his words sure as a promise. "I know you can, Kate. I just want to make sure that you _want_ to, that you feel ready to do this." His fingers comb through the hair that is just beginning to grow down over her shoulders again. "I don't want you to feel like you_ have_ to do this, if you're not ready for it, Kate." His lips press to the top of her head.

"I don't," she promises, settling even deeper against him, feeling his arms tighten around her. The urge to pace is gone, as he holds her close, cradles the back of her head in his palm. She doesn't want to cross her arms over her chest, and doesn't want to pull away. So she doesn't. She stays in his arms and waits for the knock at the door to come.

Still, as calm as his arms make her, when the knock does come, she jumps from his arms and crosses her arms over her chest again, turning to face the door, wondering whether he'll answer, or if she's supposed to.

* * *

He's the one that answers the door, probably knowing that she won't. He does, however, get her to uncross her arms before he pulls the door open, telling her that the children will pick up on her nerves, and her defensive position will only make it more obvious. So she's standing here, next to him, arms feeling awkward as she slips her hands into her back pockets in what she thinks is a more casual position, waiting to see these children that have her heart once again beating out of her chest.

When the door opens, she's almost surprised at how innocent it looks, and she mentally slaps herself for being so scared of a few kids. In the hallway outside the loft stands a group of six people. There's the two women Castle told her about, Elizabeth and Sam. They're smiling, wide and happy as though they can't wait to dump their kids on her. That, or they're just trying to make her more comfortable. She's not really sure.

The group of kids, as Castle told her, consists of three boys and a girl. The oldest, a boy, is standing there uninterested, iPod cradled in his palm and backpack slung over one shoulder. Next to him stands to little girl, hands holding the straps of her bag tight over her shoulders, a braid slung over one of the bag's straps like a rope of brown hair. Then there's the two boys who look exactly alike, one wearing a red shirt and the other wearing a blue shirt. One of the two boys is holding two bags, and the other is not holding anything.

"Hello," says Castle. His voice is light and welcoming, and he motions for the group to come into the loft. She stands right next to him, pressing her shoulder against his as he lets their six guests file into the living room. He reaches out and closes the door behind them. "Elizabeth, Sam, I would like you guys to meet my wife, Kate," he says, his arm coming to rest on her shoulders. His free hand motions to the two women, first to the redhead and then to the brunette. "Kate, these are my friends Elizabeth and Sam."

She forces herself to smile, which forces the nerves back, and reaches out to shake Elizabeth and Sam's hands. Both Elizabeth and Sam are smiling back at her, polite and trusting, and even though she's never met the two women, it's oddly comforting. As Sam releases her hand, she feels her own smile go from forced to genuine. And she watches, more relaxed, as Castle pulls each of his friends into a quick hug.

"It's very nice to meet you, Kate," says Elizabeth. Her hands rest protectively on her sons' shoulders. "I must admit, when Rick first called, I was a little hesitant, but he had nothing but good things to say about you." Her smile is genuine and still surprisingly trusting. "He promised that you are very considerate and obviously, considering you are a detective, you know how to keep people safe."

Sam nods her agreement. "And I know Rick would never tell me to trust anyone incompetent with my children," she adds. The little girl is still standing in front of her, rocking back and forth on her feet. The eldest boy is still playing on his iPod, earphones perched on his head. Sam elbows her son gently, getting his attention, and motions to her, mumbling something she can't understand.

The boy rolls his eyes, but holds out his hand anyway. "Hi, Kate," he says after sliding the earphones down around his neck, and she reaches out to shake his hand politely, "I'm Tyler." She releases his hand, but he doesn't go back to his iPod. Instead, he lets the headphones remain hanging around his neck, and stuffs the small device into his pocket. She smiles at him, and he smiles back, although it's halfheartedly.

She then turns to the little girl, and holds out her hand. "Hi," she says softly. "I'm Kate."

The little girl holds out her own hand, small fingers twining with hers as they shake hands delicately. "Hi, Miss Kate," she echoes, her voice high and soft. "My name's Brooklyn, but I like Brooke more." she says. She tugs on the hem of her dress gently, and kicks her toes against the floor as she smiles almost shyly. Kate smiles at the sight, thinking her an adorable little girl.

She stands up straight again, and smiles at Sam.

"Tyler's ten and Brooke here's seven," says Sam. "Neither one have any allergies or anything like that," she adds, squeezing her little girl's shoulders.

"Good to know," she responds, smiling at Sam and then down at Brooklyn, who's still rocking back and forth on her toes.

Castle squeezes her hand gently, and she finds herself turning towards the other two boys, identical and just standing there, looking bored. She smiles at them, and the one in blue, holding both bags, smiles back. The other just shrugs at her, and she's not exactly sure what that means.

"Hi," says the one in blue. "I'm Braden." He sets one of the bags on the ground and holds out his hand. She smiles at his good manners and reaches out to shake his hand. "And this is my brother Brody," he continues, motioning to the boy in red before reaching down to pick the bag back up. He turns to look at Sam briefly before turning back to her. "And we're both nine and have no allergies," he turns to his mother, "right, Mom?"

Elizabeth smiles and combs her fingers through his brown hair in response, which Kate assumes is a yes, since Elizabeth doesn't correct Braden on anything.

She smiles down at Braden and nods. Castle's arm wraps around Kate's waist, pulling her against his side. She feels him squeeze her hip, and she looks up at meet his gaze. His eyes hold a silent question, and she nods, silently telling him that she's okay. In fact, if anything, this is making her a little bit more comfortable.

* * *

When the door closes behind him, Kate finds herself swallowing back a sigh. The closed door stares back at her, her mind conjuring images of his retreating form and the elevator doors closing behind him, leaving her here with four waiting kids, four kids depending on her for the entire weekend. She digs her fingers into her thighs to keep herself from crossing her arms over her chest, and turns back towards the four kids standing in her living room.

"Okay," she says, forcing herself to sound peppy, happy and not at all scared, "a little birdy told me that a few of you guys like to do arts and crafts." She rocks back and forth on her feet awkwardly, hoping the kids don't pick up on it. And she silently thanks Castle for giving her advice on how to start the day, and for going out shopping with her to get things for the kids.

She's really not sure what she's supposed to do. Or what she's supposed to say. Or how she's supposed to talk to a group of kids. She's really not sure of _anything_ right now.

"I do!" pipes up Brooke, and she swallows back the desperate 'thank you' that threatens to escape her. "Momma says I make really nice things when we do crafts." She bounces on her toes excitedly, fingers pulling at the hem of her dress, letting the fabric flutter back down to her small legs.

"I bet you do," Kate responds. She finds herself taking a step closer to the group of kids. Tyler is standing next to his sister, looking secretly interested. And Braden and Brody are elbowing each other back and forth, whispering things to each other that she can't hear. "So, how about we find somewhere to put your bags and then we can go make some crafts. Does that sound good?"

Brooke nods, and Tyler shrugs. Braden nods, too, his eyes falling down to the bag he's holding in his hand, his other hand pulling the strap of the second bag up on his shoulder. She smiles and proceeds to explain the sleeping arrangements for the night. Braden and Brody in the upstairs guest room and Tyler and Brooke on the living room floor. She leaves Tyler and Brooke's bags on the couch before showing the twins their room. She watches as Braden sets both bags near the door.

Kate leads the kids into the dining room, and is surprised to see that the craft supplies she and Castle bought a couple days ago are already laid out across the table's surface. She smiles at his pre-planning, knowing that he probably did this while she was pacing the living room nervously. Brooke appears right beside her, and she sees the little girl bounce on her toes excitedly.

"Miss Kate, you have so much craft stuff," she says. She runs towards one of the chairs and pulls it out from underneath the table, and then climbs up and onto it. Her two hands press firmly into the table as she props herself up on her knees, her eyes locked on the craft supplies at the center of the table.

The other three children follow her lead. Tyler takes a seat next to his sister, and the twins take the two chairs on the opposite side. Kate herself takes a seat at the head of the table, and reaches out to take a piece of blank, white paper, beginning their morning of arts and crafts as the kids follow her lead. As she does, she can't help but smile at how Brooke had called her 'Miss Kate.' It had been endearing and, dare she say it, cute.

* * *

"So, you guys all know each other, right?" Kate asks eventually. The table is mostly silent, Brooke concentrating on her craft, whatever it was meant to be. The twins are working on a picture together, gluing things onto the paper to add 'texture', as they say. And Tyler looks pretty bored, tracing aimless shapes on his piece of sky blue paper. She's asking mostly for him.

"Yeah," says Tyler. "Our moms went to college together and have been best friends ever since." He shrugs his shoulders indifferently, and looks up from his piece of paper to meet her gaze. "They met Mr. Castle, uh…your husband, at some party they won an invite to in some online contest a few years ago, when Brooklyn was four, and they've kinda all been friends ever since." He shrugs again. "We hang out like every weekend, if not more than once a week," he finishes, motioning across the table to Braden and Brody.

"That's cool," she says, unsure of what else to say. It takes Kate a few seconds to come up with her next question. "So, what do you like to do? You know, do you have any hobbies, or do any sports?" It's partly a genuine question and partly a potential probe to determine more possible weekend activities. She looks down at her paper briefly and rolls her eyes at the hearts she has subconsciously drawn on her piece of paper, and then she looks back up at Tyler.

"I play soccer," he answers, shrugging. He looks up from his paper of random shapes to meet her gaze. "So do Braden and Brody. They're on my team, The Rockets." She sees a smile coming across his face, and she feels herself smiling, too, happy that he no longer seems so bored. "We did pretty good last season."

"Good for you," she says. Her hand subconsciously traces another heart on the paper, and she sighs internally at what Castle has done to her. She hasn't doodled hearts like this since she was a teenager, and now she's sitting here with little Castle babies on the brain and hearts seem to be the only thing she can draw. At least, she tells herself, it's better than baby bottles.

They fall silent again for a little while. Kate finds herself looking at the overlapping hearts traced on the page, and finds herself retracing them in red and pink. Brooklyn tells her it's pretty, and then tells her it would look even better with sparkles. She ends up tracing some of the hearts in red glitter glue, to please Brooke. But she has to admit, as cheesy and juvenile as it looks, she kinda likes it. And she finds herself writing carefully, across the middle of her page, "Always" in black marker, and beneath it, she writes their wedding date.

She's rolling her eyes at herself as she looks at the finished product, and yet she finds herself wanting to send a picture to him, anyway, just to show him how stupidly sappy he's turned her since he knocked down her walls and forced his way in. Not that she's actually complaining, though. She loves this life. It's the whole reason she's babysitting four kids for an entire weekend, because she's glad he forced his way into her heart.

And there she goes being sappy...again.

"Kate?" asks Tyler as she's fishing her phone out of her pocket. She turns to face him, waiting for him to continue. "Can you put your hand right here?" He points to the center of his page, which is a new, blank piece of paper. "I want to trace it, and your fingers are skinnier than mine. Is that okay?"

She smiles and nods, placing her hand on the sheet of paper before turning back to her own piece of...artwork. She pulls up their old text conversations, and sees that she has a new message from him. It simply reads "Good luck!", and she smiles at it even though there's really nothing to smile about. No wonder the boys tease her, she finds herself thinking.

Kate snaps a picture of her 'drawing' and sends it to him. His response comes, five heart emoticons that have her rolling her eyes all over again. It's quickly followed by a smiley face with his tongue sticking out, and a final message that reads "Detective, you're turning soft", followed by one more smiley, this one winking. It suited him well.

And it's then that she realizes that Tyler didn't actually trace her hand. She goes to raise her hand to type out a quick reply, blaming him for her sudden sappiness, and finds that her hand is taped to something. Kate drops her phone onto the table, careful to avoid the still drying glitter glue, and turns to where her hand is still resting on the table.

Tyler is smiling at her suspiciously, and she now realizes that Braden, Brody and Brooke have also dropped what they were doing and are watching her, too. Her hand is pressed to the piece of paper by several layers of translucent tape, and she stares at it, silently wondering how in the world she didn't notice what Tyler was up to before her hand got stuck to a piece of paper.

She looks back up at Tyler, and though his face is still coated with mischief, he simply shrugs as though he has no idea what happened or why her hand is taped to his paper rather than traced on the white sheet. She looks back down at her hand and instantly knows she's probably going to regret this, but finds herself raising her hand, and the piece of paper, from the table.

Almost instantly, Tyler's iPod is out, and he snaps a couple pictures. Of what, she's not yet sure, but she's sure she'll find out the minute she sees whatever's on the other side of the paper. As Tyler reaches across the table to show the twins the picture he took, and Brooklyn chants a steady song of "I wanna see!", she feels herself smiling at the sight, even though they're all laughing at her expense. At least they're enjoying themselves, she tells herself.

When Kate turns her hand and reads what it says on the other side of the paper, she finds herself rolling her eyes, anyway. It's really not _that_ bad. The paper simply reads, "I'M AN IDIOT!" in Tyler's big, blocky letters. And as Tyler shows his sister the picture, making Brooke break out into a fit of laughter, she still finds herself smiling, and pulling the tape off the back of her hand.

"Very funny," Kate says, sticking the end of a string of tape to the edge of the table. "You guys got me." She keeps her voice as agreeable as possible, even though she's not really mad to begin with. It was just a harmless little prank.

Brooklyn is still laughing softly from her place, kneeling on her chair and staring at her own piece of artwork, her shoulders shaking with giggles she can't quite contain. Braden and Brody are whispering to each other again, and Kate once again can't understand a word they're saying. Tyler is flipping through the pictures on his iPod, smiling happily, clearly amused. She smiles at the sight, still pulling tape off the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry, Kate. I couldn't resist," says Tyler, still looking at the pictures on his iPod. He looks up and smiles sheepishly, shrugging one shoulder. She just shrugs back, smiling at him, telling him silently that it's okay, that it's just a sign and a few pictures and she's not mad at him.

The table falls silent again. Braden and Brody are adding glitter to their creations, and Brooke is focusing intensely on her own project. Tyler keeps playing on his iPod. Kate continues pulling strips of tape off her hand, wondering how Tyler got so many in place so quickly, and without her noticing. But she doesn't dwell on it, eventually getting her hand free and letting the sign fall to the table. She picks up her phone again and shoots Castle a quick message before shoving it back into her pocket and grabbing a new piece of paper.

She's tracing the links that join a pair of handcuffs, much like her own, when she feels a finger tap her shoulder. She turns to see Brody looking at her expectantly, his eyes wide and hands cradling a bottle of white Elmer glue, the kind normally used in school classrooms. She smiles, silently telling him that he has her attention.

"I can't get the glue out, and Braden needs it to stick on the pasta," says Brody. He shakes the bottle up and down violently, as if hitting thin air, his eyes squeezed shut. She turns fully in her seat, dropping her pencil onto the table to help Brody. And yet, it's almost as soon as she's facing him completely that she sees the sharp flex of his fingers against the plastic bottle, and it's too late for her to move.

Kate really, honestly always thought this was just something that happened in the movies. She really thought that glue didn't actually..._explode_ out of the bottle at a sudden squeeze. And yet she feels the cold, goopy liquid land on her chest. It seeps through the thin fabric of her blouse. Thick, gross glue pressed against her skin, holding her shirt to her chest in a horrible way.

Kate's eyes are squeezed shut, an instinctive reaction to having glue fly at you, so she can't see Brody's reaction. She does, however, hear his quiet utterance of "Oops" and the harmony of children's chuckles that follow. She fights the urge to clench her hands into fists as she forces her eyes to open, and she sees the group of four kids all laughing, leaning over the table.

She wipes her clean hands against her sides, and shakes her head at the situation, pressing her palm against the table as she pushes herself up into a standing position. The glue, as thick as it is, is beginning the roll down her shirt in slow streaks that almost have her shuddering because it feels so strange. The kids are still laughing at the table as she walks through the door to Castle's office, and into their bedroom. She really has to change.

Kate closes the door behind her and quickly begins undoing the buttons of her shirt, pulling the wet fabric away from her skin slowly. The glue has seeped through the thin fabric enough to leave her skin sticky, and she crinkles her nose at the feeling of it. Wet clothes have never bothered her. She's even had blood on her clothes, and it hasn't bothered her, not like this. But glue seems to send a shudder down her spine, and she's not completely sure why.

She grabs a new, almost identical top from a hanger in the closet, curling her fingers around the collar as she walks by and into the ensuite bathroom. She rests the top on the counter and pulls open one of the vanity's drawers, pulling out a white washcloth. She dampens it with warm water before pressing it against her chest, dabbing the glue remnants away. She presses the corner of the cloth to her scar briefly before dropping it into the sink and picking the shirt back up.

She's slipping the final button through its hole when she emerges from the office, and instantly Kate stops in her tracks as her eyes land upon the table, kids gone and in the living room. She can hear the T.V. from where she stands. But it's not at all how she left it. Glue is spread across the wood in random swirls, some of it white, some of it sparkling in the overhead light. Papers are ripped and pasta is scattered across the floor along with buttons and other random things Castle put out for the kids. Lines of washable, thankfully, marker are drawn on the dark wood.

And she knows she was gone for, at most, all of five minutes. She knows _this_ was done on purpose.

* * *

**Once again, thank you to prompter and my beta, _la z boy._**


	3. Chapter 2

**Katherine Beckett.**

* * *

She scrubs the lines of marker off the table, watching as the black ink fades from the wood and soaks into the sponge. She picks the pasta and buttons up off the floor. She wipes the swirls of glue away with paper towel, and then wipes away the lingering stickiness with an old dish cloth. She gathers the pieces of ripped paper, and drops them into the recycling bin, and then scrubs the entire table down again.

She's wiping the final sparkles off the corner of the table when she feels a tap on her shoulder, and she hums to tell the child, whichever one it may be, to wait a second for her to be finished. Her nails scrape at the roughness the glitter has left over the usually smooth, varnished wood, pulling them off the table, and into the dishcloth. Her arms start to ache from the strenuous effort. She curls her fist around the cloth when she's finished, and turns to see which child wants her attention.

It's Brooke, standing just a foot behind her and rocking back and forth on her toes in what now appeared to be her go-to stance. Her fingers are curled around the fabric of her dress, swinging the hem of her skirt back and forth in rhythm with her gentle swaying. She's smiling, small little baby teeth pearly white, big brown eyes innocent and sweet, and despite the purposefully made mess courtesy of these four kids, she finds herself smiling, too.

"Yes, Brooklyn?" she asks, leaning forward so her gaze is even with little Brooke's. "Is there something I can do for you?" Brooke is still smiling and rocking back and forth as she nods. "Yes? Well then, what's that?" And for a moment, Kate is struck by how easy this suddenly seems, speaking to a child, despite her complete lack of experience. Maybe it's just Brooke that makes it easy, she thinks to herself.

"I'm hungry. Tyler said it's lunchtime," says Brooklyn. She pushes out her stomach, taking in a big, deep breath. She releases the hem of her skirt and pats her stomach pointedly. She pushes out her lower lip in this sweet little pout, and Kate doesn't doubt for a moment that _that _face can get anyone to do just about anything for Brooke, when the little girl chooses to use it.

She doesn't bother checking the time to confirm, knowing from the sparking hunger she's feeling herself that Brooke is right. Instead, she nods her head, and smiles down at the little girl. "Is it, now? Well, then," she says, standing up straight again and resting her hand on her own stomach, "I guess I should find us something to eat. Shouldn't I?" She adds on a friendly wink for good measure.

Brooke nods enthusiastically, and then turns on her heel and skips back into the living room to join the boys, throwing a "Thank you, Miss Kate" over her shoulder. She watches from the dining room until Brooke's head disappears beneath the top of the couch, and she hears the little girl's soft voice asking the boys what she missed, and no reply from Tyler, Braden or Brody.

She rolls her eyes at that, but then turns towards the kitchen to find something to make for the kids and herself. Instantly, she wraps her hand around the fridge door's handle. Pulling the door open, her eyes immediately land on the bowl of pasta that sits on the top shelf, leftover from a couple days ago when Alexis made enough to feed an army. She pulls it out the fridge and sets in the counter.

From the living room, she can hear Brooke, Braden and Brody laughing at whatever's happening on their T.V. show. Tyler doesn't react, so she assumes he's still playing on his iPod, or maybe he just doesn't find whatever's going on funny. Either way, the sound of children's laughter brings a smile across her face as she pulls a pile of five plates out of the cupboard.

She can still hear the giggles of childhood glee coming from the living room as she scoops even servings of pasta onto each of the plates. Brooke's are the loudest, sounding musical as they float through the loft, filled with the kind of innocence that only a child can have. And for the first time in… well, ever, really, she realizes how amazing children really are, why people love them so much. It's this. It's innocence that adults just don't have.

She turns around and leans against the counter, the edge of the marble pressing into the curve at the base of her spine. From where's she's standing, she has a clear view of the living room and the couch. Brooke is bouncing, her brown hair peeking up from the couch cushions rhythmically, and Tyler is leaning over the armrest, headphones covering his ears. She can't see Braden and Brody, but she can hear their laughter.

Behind her, the microwave beeps and she quickly pulls one plate out of it and replaces it with another, setting the timer for another minute. And she repeats the process with every plate, listening to the children's giggles, and failing to realize that with every bout of laughter that fills the loft, any semblance of anger she had felt in regards to the purposeful Arts &amp; Crafts disaster in the dining room seems to fade.

She sets all the plates at the table, setting her own at the end, in the same place as where she was sitting earlier, before walking into the living room. The T.V. is lit up with what looks like something Castle would watch while procrastinating, juvenile humor that pulls laughter from children...and immature writers. She watches for a moment, rolling her eyes at how the simplest of things like cartoon characters hitting each other with mallets and frying pans have the three watching children laughing their little heads off, and then decides it's time to interrupt them for lunch.

As soon as she speaks, telling the children that lunch is ready, Brooke bounces off the couch, landing perfectly on her feet and running towards the dining room. Braden stands up slowly, eyes still glued to the T.V., but is soon following in Brooke's footsteps, walking much slower to the dining room. Brody whines about how the episode's not done, but soon turns away from the T.V., too. She has to tap Tyler's shoulder to get his attention, and he comes without any resistance, letting his headphones once again fall around his neck as he tucks his iPod into his pocket.

She follows him into the dining room, and finds the children sitting around the table in the same places they were during Craft Time. Brooklyn is once again kneeling, leaning over her plate and twirling the small fork in her fingers, the utensil falling to the table as she fails to continue the simple dance of her fingers. Tyler is already twirling his fork in his spaghetti, and she's surprised to see Braden scooping some of his food onto his brother's plate, but Brody doesn't complain, so she assumes it's nothing to worry about.

She takes her own seat and twirls a mouthful of pasta around the prongs of her fork. She takes a bite and looks back up at the kids, seeing that Tyler is eating, too, and Braden and Brody, despite having taken only a couple bites, already have red sauce staining the skin at the corners of their mouths. But Brooklyn isn't eating, she's just bouncing up and down on her knees, staring at her plate.

"Are you okay, Brooke?" she asks, setting her own fork down on the table and watching as the little girl turns to face her, brown eyes wide. "Do you not like pasta? I can see if there's anything else for you to eat," she suggests as Brooklyn fails to speak. She's ready to stand and go back into the kitchen, her palm pressed flat against the table, when Brooke finally speaks.

"I like pasta, Miss Kate," she says, nodding her head as her eyes fall down to her plate. And then she looks back up. "I just… I _really _have to pee." Her voice falls, soft as a whisper that dances across the table, and she feels her own eyes widen, realizing she failed to show the kids where the bathroom is, and Braden and Brody chuckle like the little boys they are. Brooke shoots them a glare that reminds her of a younger version of herself.

"Oh. Well then, I'll just show you the bathroom, okay?" Kate suggests, pushing herself into a standing position.

Brooklyn nods violently, and hops off her own chair, following her down the hallway to the bathroom door. Once they get there, she pushes the door open for Brooke and reminds the little girl to wash her hands when she's done. Brooke nods before entering the bathroom, and she waits for a moment before walking back into the dining room, just in case Brooke asks for help.

She's twirling another bite of pasta around her fork when she hears it, the high pitched squeal of a little girl that has her jumping from her seat as quickly as possible, her cop instincts taking over. Even Tyler jumps at her quick reaction, dropping his fork as she runs by and towards the bathroom door. She pushes the wooden door open quickly, thankful that Brooke didn't lock it, and feels a sigh of relief escape her chest at the sight of Brooke.

The girl is perfectly fine, standing about a foot away from the sink's vanity, holding her hands out, fingers pinched at the hem of dress, holding that away from her body, too. She's standing on her tiptoes, eyes wide with horror as she stares at the open door, and then looks back down at the tiled floor, which is covered in a puddle. And water continues to flow out of the sink like a waterfall, a cascade down the vanity and onto the floor, the tap still running and full blast.

Kate reaches over and turns the water off, stands still as she watches the final waves of water wash over the bowl of the sink and fall to the floor. Brooke sighs in relief as the water in the sink stills. The puddle of water on the floor continues to expand and spread, surrounding the base of the toilet, a few drops leaking over the base of the door to land on the hardwood floor of the hallway. And she stares at the floor, and then looks back up at Brooke.

"I'm sorry, Miss Kate," says the little girl. Her lower lip is quivering as she speaks, pushed out in a pout, her finger still holding her wet dress away from her body. "I didn't mean to. I promise. I couldn't stop it." Her brown eyes land on the sink again, and she shakes her head as though disappointed with herself. And then Brooke looks back at her, eyes still wide. "You're not mad, are you?"

"No," she says instantly. "You just scared me. That's all. It's okay," she promises, taking a step into the bathroom, ignoring the disgusting feeling of the water seeping through the thin material of her socks. Brooke still looks panicked, standing in the puddle on her tiptoes. She walks over to the little girl, sets her hands on the curve of Brooke's ribcage, looks into her big brown eyes for permission to lift her. At Brooklyn's slight nod, she lifts her onto the toilet, making sure she's stable before releasing her and telling her to sit down.

Brooke's legs hang over the edge of the toilet when she sits, too short for her feet to touch the ground. There's a dark mark on the front of her dress, where the water has soaked through the material, and the very tip of her braid is damp, falling to the edge of the darkened spot. Brooklyn's big brown eyes look up at her in a silent question as she looks down at the ground, debating what to do next, and then she drops to her knees.

The water seeps through the denim of her jeans, rendering it heavy and pressing it against her skin. It's cold against her calves, and soaks through the fabric of her socks to wet the top of her feet, too. Her hand presses against the hard tiles, the water cold between her fingers, making the tiles slippery beneath her palm. She pushes herself back until her weight is resting completely on her knees.

With careful hands and slow movements, she pulls off each of Brooke's black shoes, handing each of them to Brooke, who takes them in her small palms. She then pulls off each of Brooklyn's small, purple socks, which are completely soaked through, and she drops them into the puddle, knowing there's no way they'll be dry anytime soon. Brooke whines in protest, but doesn't do much else until she's standing up again. Her hands framing Brooke's ribcage again, she carries the little girl back to the hallway.

"There you go," she says as she sets Brooke down on the hardwood floor, watching as Brooke wiggle her toes against the air. "You go eat lunch, and then we'll go find you something else to wear, okay? I'll be right there, as soon as I clean this up," she tells Brooklyn, leaning down to put her eyes level with the little girl's. Brooke nods in response, and then runs off, back towards the dining room.

* * *

She wrings the towel out, lets the water drip down into the sink. The drain accepts it greedily, slurping sounds filling the bathroom as the water disappears from the sink and travels down the pipes. She watches until the final drops have disappeared, the sink glistening with dampness. And then she drops the still soggy-towel into the sink, figuring it'll dry eventually, if she leaves it there long enough.

Her jeans are soaked, so wet that even though only her knees and everything below actually touched the floor, the water has darkened the fabric just above her knees, too. Her hands ache from supporting her weight, the pattern of the tile pressed into her flesh. Her knees burn, her ankles ache from the way the floor forced her feet to be pushed back. Even the ends of her hair are damp, having brushed against the wet floor as she dried it.

She wipes her hands against her thighs, wiping away the remaining sheen of water that coats them, and heaves in a deep breath as she turns back to the door. She can hear the kids laughing again, so she assumes they've finished eating and went back to their cartoons. She smiles, figuring that at least they're happy and taken care of, and she knows that cleaning up messes will be a part of parenthood, when the time comes. So she'll deal with it.

She leaves the bathroom and walks down the hall, towards the dining room. Her plate of now-cold food still sits at her spot, the other four, mostly empty plates still sitting on that table, too. Part of her wants to sit down and eat, her stomach grumbling for food, but a bigger, more determined part of her needs to get out of these heavy, wet clothes, and into something more comfortable, something dry.

She glances into the living room briefly, to make sure that all four of the kids are, in fact, watching T.V. They are, so she walks through Castle's office and into their bedroom. Quickly, she undoes the buttons of her shirt, letting one of her few dry articles of clothing call to the floor. She toes off her soaked socks as her fingers undo the button of her jeans. She tugs the wet denim down her legs, pulling it over her feet and letting it fall to the floor, too.

She quickly finds a pair of black yoga pants, and slips them on effortlessly. She pulls on a dark purple shirt, too, and a pair of black ankle socks before reaching down to grab her wet clothes. She throws them into the laundry hamper they keep in the ensuite bathroom, pulling her phone out of the pocket of her jeans, before walking back into their bedroom and taking a seat on the edge of the bed. She quickly types in the code that unlocks her phone.

The screen lights up with a missed message from Castle, which simply reads "How's everything going?". She smiles to herself before quickly pulling up his contact information and tapping the screen to call him. The children's giggles can still be heard as she leans back and lays down on the bed, her legs hanging off the edge. In her ear, she hears the phone ring once, twice, three times before he picks up.

"So, how's it going?" he asks. She can hear the smile in his voice, and it makes her smile, too. "Is it as scary as you thought it would be?"

"No," she admits. "They're pretty good, just watching T.V. now. We did have a little mishap with the bathroom sink, though." She pushes herself back up into a sitting position, and pulls down the rising hem of her t-shirt.

"Oh?" he asks.

"Yeah. It, uh, overflowed. Brooke was struggling with the plug," she explains, shrugging even though he can't see her. "It's okay, though. I cleaned it all up, and Brooke is perfectly fine," she promises, smiling to herself. "They're all alive and well, Castle."

"I know," he says, and she can hear his slightly exasperated sigh. "_I _never doubted that you could take great care of them, Kate. That was all you."

"I know," she echoes.

"But it's going well? They aren't scaring you too much?" he asks, and she hums her answer. "Good. Do you, uh, think this weekend will be a success?"

She glances out the door, as though her answer will be somewhere beyond the threshold. But all she can see is his empty office, the closed laptop and walls of books. "It's a little early to tell," she says honestly. "But so far so good, Castle. I think… I'm optimistic."

She can practically see his smile. "I'm glad." And the silence that travels back and forth through the line is nothing short of charged with hope, but comfortable all the same, until he speaks again. "What are you planning on doing next?"

"As soon as we hang up, I'm going to eat lunch," she tells him, her punctuating chuckle filling the room and echoing of the books. "And then I'm going to bring the kids to the park. They'll like that, right?"

"All kids like the park. Even Alexis, my little bookworm, loved it there," he says, his voice filling with that wistful kind of love that she only hears when he talks about Alexis when she was younger. "Don't worry about it, they'll enjoy it," he promises.

"Okay," she says. "Then that's what we're doing next."

"Then I should let you go," he says, and she tries to hate the fact that she really doesn't want to stop talking to him, loves the fact that even this short phone conversation can calm so many of her lingering fears. "I love you, Kate."

"Love you, too," she responds.

"And call if you need anything," he tells her. "Even if you don't think you can handle it, Kate, I'm here if you need _anything_." It's a promise, as true as their wedding vows, and it brings a smile to her face.

"I know," she whispers. "I promise I'll call if I need anything. Bye, babe."

"Bye," he echoes before ending the call, the soft click telling her he's gone. She ends the call on her side, too, still smiling to herself as she stands up and walks towards the dresser. She grabs her purse, dropping her phone into the mostly-empty bag before pulling it over her shoulder.

She leaves the bedroom and walks straight to the dining room, grabbing her plate of cold food with an easy sweep of her hand, and then she walks to the kitchen. From here, she can see the kids again. Well, she can see Brooklyn, at least, who's standing up on the couch, and the top of either Braden or Brody's head, she can't tell which. Brooke's hand is on the head, though, holding her steady, and they all seem to be looking down at the same thing. She guesses that it's Tyler's iPod.

She smiles to herself as she turns away from the living room, pulls the microwave door open and sets the plate of cold pasta down in the small appliance. Quickly, she sets it for a minute and hits start, listening as the microwave whirs to life. She watches through the glass door as the plate spins within the appliance, listens to the constant whir that accompanies the gradual heating, until it beeps, announcing that it's completed its task. She grabs a fork from the nearby drawer, and quickly pulls the plate out of the microwave, and takes a bite.

The minute the food hits her tongue, she tastes it, tainting the flavor of spiced tomatoes, disguising the flavor of spaghetti. Her teeth, ready to chew, and throat, ready to swallow, still and tense as she presses her tongue to her palette, as though that will somehow relieve the overwhelming taste that swirls horribly within her mouth. Salt. _Way_ too much salt. It coats her tongue and, now, the roof of her mouth and, God, she managed to swallow the first bite of smorelette Castle once fed her, but this… She can't swallow _this_.

She quickly glances back at the living room to make sure none of the children are watching her before walking quickly towards the garbage can. The lid opens with the press of her foot against the pedal, and she finds herself spitting the bite of spaghetti out and into the trash can, trying to stay as quiet as possible as she desperately tries to rid her mouth of the horrible tasting food. She washes away the salt that coats the inside of her mouth with a low drink of warm water, chugging down most of a glass until her mouth is numb.

It's only now, as she sets the glass back down on the marble countertop and opens her eyes, that she sees Braden standing right in front of her. And his presence suddenly makes her brain come to the rather obvious conclusion that this was done on purpose. Whether it was by him or one of the other kids, though, she's not sure. Based on the way he's standing here, though, she doubts it's him.

"Are you okay, Kate?" he asks. His eyes travel from her face to the almost empty, tall glass that was once filled with water, and then to the plate still filled with salty pasta. Then his brown eyes meet hers again, wide and curious, and looking almost worried.

"I'm fine, Braden," she promises him. She takes another, small sip from her glass of water. "You can go back and have fun with your brother, Tyler and Brooke," she suggests, motioning with a tilt of her head to the living room, from where she can hear Brody calling something "_So cool!"._

"I will, but I'm thirsty, Kate," he tells her, rocking forward on his toes once as he speaks. "Can I have some milk?" He smiles sweetly, and she can't help but smile, too, as she nods. She grabs another, smaller glass from the cupboard for him, and fills it with milk before handing it to him. Braden takes a greedy sip, his upper lip stained white when he pulls the glass away from his mouth.

He reaches over towards the counter, planning on setting his glass down, and she finds herself wincing as she notices that just a little too much of the glass' base is off the counter, anticipating the outcome before it happens. Sure enough, the minute his fingers release the glass, it tips the wrong way and falls to the ground, hitting the floor, shattering against the wood. The white of the milk forms a puddle on the floor, and both she and Braden stare down at it.

"Oops," he whispers. She looks up at the sound of his small voice, and he looks up, too. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, Kate."

"It's okay," she tells him, forcing a hopefully reassuring smile. She scans the ground around his feet, realizes that he's still wearing his sneakers, and that pretty much all the glass is at least a couple inches away from him. She looks back up at him. "You go into the living room, okay? I'll clean this up." He nods, and runs off towards where his brother, Tyler and Brooke are still laughing, oblivious, as if the sound of shattering glass had been muted to them.

She sighs, staring down at the mess at her feet, careful to avoid the shards of glass, and then looks back up, and towards the living room. "Braden, Brody, Tyler, Brooke," she calls to the kids. Brooklyn turns around to face her, and Brody's head pokes up over the back of the couch so she can see his brown eyes. Braden pauses on his walk to the couch, turning to face her, and Tyler hums to let her know he's listening. "As soon as I'm done cleaning this up, we're going to the park," she tells them, "so can you please get ready while I do this?"

The kids nod, and she watches as they each get up. Tyler switches off the T.V. and Brooklyn shows the twins the way to the bathroom. As she watches Brooke, she realizes that the little girl's dress is now dry, and she sighs in relief. That's one less thing she has to worry about. And as the kids do their own thing, she finds herself walking to the hallway closet to retrieve the dustpan.

* * *

The fresh air fills her lungs, relieves her chest of the tension her anxiety caused. It's soothing, comforting, as she walks in steady steps, all four kids in front of her. Brooke is skipping ahead, leading the group to what she claims is her "_favorite part of the park, Miss Kate." _Behind her, Braden and Brody walk in perfect sync, the colors of their shirts the only way she can differentiate them. Tyler walks only a little bit in front of her, headphones hanging around his neck, playing music loud enough for her to hear from where she stands.

The sky is the perfect shade of blue, a gentle breeze keeping New York City comfortable, and eliminating the thick stillness that surrounds you when you're walking down the hot, crowded streets, but still soft enough that the leaves barely rustle, and her hair remains relatively in place. The grass is green, the path on which they walk beige, dividing the lawn of the park.

Trees dot the grass like stars dot the night sky, random in their placement, beautiful in their relation to each other. The path is familiar, but at the same time, not. Calm like the one she takes during her morning runs, but new as she has never taken this exact path before. So she takes in the view, the simple beauty that is a green park in the center of Manhattan, an area of calm serenity surrounded by the city that never sleeps.

There's a bend in the path ahead of them, a bend that curves around a group of trees. Some of the branches hang over the path, and Brooklyn pauses to jump up and brush the leaves with her fingers. Brooke's soft, innocent laughter is whisked away by the wind, a harmony that dances in the air, tickles her ears as it blows by, pulls the corners of her mouth up into a wide smile. Tyler, Braden and Brody seem oblivious to how beautiful this all is, compared to the painful reality she must face each day, but to her, this is as close to magical as things get.

As she walks under the branches, the leaves tickle her face, brush against her cheeks. She raises her hand and traces the center of one, from stem to tip, her fingertip lingering at the point of the leaf's tip until her steps render it out of reach. Another leaf brushes across her forehead, gets trapped momentarily in the strands of her hair, and she gently plucks it away, letting it settle back comfortably on the branch.

The playground comes into view, a play structure built for children's enjoyment. Groups of kids are already playing on it, a boy struggling to make his way across the monkey bars, a little girl going down the slide with a toddler sitting on her lap, likely her little brother, a boy sliding down the firefighter's pole. Mothers sit around on nearby benches, and for a moment it makes her feel oddly out of place, as she watches a woman sitting alone on a bench, gently pushing a stroller back and forth.

The kids run towards the playground, Braden and Brody running towards the monkey bars, where the boy has now reached the end and is hopping up and down proudly, waving at his mother. Brooke heads for the ladder that leads up the structure and towards the highest slide. She's not surprised to see Tyler take a seat on one of the platforms, pulling his headphones onto his ear again, and tapping the screen of his iPod. She doesn't bother trying to tell him he should do something else. At least he's getting fresh air with his screen time.

She watches as they have fun for a moment, still standing on the path, before walking over to the woman with the stroller. She lingers at the end of the bench for a moment, not wanting to disrupt the beautiful moment she's able to bear witness to, the woman looking into the stroller and smiling at her baby, who's just old enough to coo and recognize his mother's voice. She smiles to herself, unable to tear her eyes away, wondering if she'll be like that when she's a mother, what it will be like to have a baby respond like that to the sound of her voice.

The moment is broken, however, when the woman seems to sense her presence, looking up and away from the cooing baby to glance at her. The apology is on the tip of Kate's tongue, her legs ready to bring her away and walk her to the opposite side of the park, when the woman softly invites her to sit down, tapping the wood of the bench next to her. She takes a seat.

"Hi," says the woman, holding out a hand. "I'm Sylvie." Her smile is sweet, blonde hair pulled back into a high ponytail. Her face is bare of any makeup, and though she looks tired, probably from having such a young baby, she's beautiful all the same.

"Kate," she responds, taking Sylvie's hand and shaking it. "He's beautiful," she adds, motioning with a slight tilt of her head to the now calm, happy baby. His eyes are wide open, a beautiful shade of blue that reminds her of Castle's eyes. He's wearing a red onesie, and a pair of baby jeans, his little feet covered by tiny white socks. He kicks his feet against the air, and his fingers pull at the almost invisible strands of blonde hair on his head, uncoordinated and adorable.

"Thank you," says Sylvie. "My husband says he looks just like me." Her smile is now proud, and she reaches over and offers her finger to the little boy, who wraps his own little fingers around it. Sylvie looks back at her. "The kids you came in with, are they yours?" she asks politely.

Kate shakes her head. "Oh, no. I'm, uh, babysitting for the weekend," she explains, turning back towards the park. She's surprised to find Tyler now standing with Braden, watching as Brody almost effortlessly makes his way across the monkey bars. "It's, uh… My husband and I are planning on trying for one soon, and I'm using this weekend to get over my insecurities around kids." She's not sure why she's telling Sylvie this, but it seems like it's okay. When she looks back at Sylvie, they're both smiling ever so slightly.

"Well, from the little I've seen, you seem to be doing well," Sylvie assures her. "I'm sure you'll make a good mother." Her smile is sweet, her words genuine. "But, if you need any more assurance, I can tell you that you will never feel ready. My husband and I had been married for a year and a half when we decided to try, got a beautiful little girl out of it," she smiles proudly, looks towards the park until her eyes land on a young girl who looks to be about four, "and yet when I got pregnant with our little man, I was still scared."

"I'm sure you had no reason to be scared. They seem to be great kids," she says honestly, watching as the little girl grabs a shovel from the sand and hands it to another little girl, who smiles brightly. Sylvie's daughter sits down with the second little girl, and they begin shoveling sand into a pail together. "She seems to be very kind."

"She is," says Sylvie. "She's such a sweetheart. We got lucky with her. With them both, really." Sylvie turns to look at her again. "My point is, I had done it all before, and my daughter was perfect, my relationship with my husband was better than ever, and yet I was still scared of being a mom, again. Nothing can prepare you for having a baby, Kate." She smiles. "The important part is that you and your husband trust each other, love each other and will be there for each other, and that you _know _you'll both love your baby to pieces. That's what really matters."

She smiles to herself, eyes falling to the grass. "I know he'll be there. I know he loves me," she whispers. "He's always been there for me." She looks back up at Sylvie. "We've been married for about a year, and were together for a little over two before we got married," she explains, smiling at the memories her words bring up. "And we were partners for four years before that."

"Partners?" asks Sylvie.

"Oh, uh, yeah. I'm a homicide detective with the N.Y.P.D.," she explains, "and my husband, Rick, is a consultant, my partner." Sylvie smiles and nods in understanding. "He was always there for me, even when I tried to push him away. I know he would be the best, always right there if I needed anything, if we were to have a baby. And I know, oh, I _know _he would love our baby, and I would, too. I can't even doubt that. I just… I don't even know why I'm so scared. It's just… so big."

"It is," agrees Sylvie. "There's nothing else that will change your life so much." She's still smiling, glances back at her baby boy, who is still pulling on her finger, and then looks back at her. "But it's also the best, most rewarding thing you'll ever do, Kate." Sylvie rests her hand above hers on the bench. "And, if it means anything to you, to me, it sounds like you're as ready as possible."

She smiles back. "Thank you. It does–" she's interrupted by a call of her name in Brooke's now familiar voice, and she turns towards the sounds. Brooke is running towards her, another little girl following right behind her.

"Miss Kate! Miss Kate!" calls Brooke as she runs, and then she gets to the bench, coming to a dead stop. Her friend stops right next to her. "Look! It's my best friend. She's here, too."

She smiles at Brooke and turns to face the other little girl. She feels her eyes go wide at the sight before her, as she actually takes in the little girl next to Brooke, the one who's frowning back at her. Yeah, she'd recognize _that_ face anywhere.

* * *

**Big thanks to my beta, la z boy, and to everyone who has read/reviewed/favorited/followed this story so far.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Brooklyn Morgan.**

* * *

She smiles up at Miss Kate, and gets a smile in return. And then Miss Kate looks towards her friend, and her smile disappears. Her face gets this weird look on it, like she's confused or mad or even sad, but then she smiles again. It's weird, how quickly Miss Kate can go from happy to upset to happy again. But she smiles, too, anyway, because she wants Emily and Miss Kate to get along.

Miss Kate holds her hand out to Emily, and she looks away from her babysitter to look at her best friend instead. Emily is frowning, just like Miss Kate was. But she doesn't look sad. She looks mad, like she really doesn't like Miss Kate. That's how she used to look at Jason, back when she didn't like him. But she holds her hand out, anyway, and shakes Miss Kate's.

It's funny, she thinks, how small Emily's hand looks in Miss Kate's.

"Emily," she says to her friend, tapping her on the shoulder. Emily turns to look at her. She's smiling again. "This is my babysitter for the weekend," she explains. She points her finger at Miss Kate as she turns away from Emily to smile at said babysitter. "This is Miss Kate." She smiles and bounces on her toes, smiling at Miss Kate. Miss Kate smiles back, again.

"I know," says Emily. She looks back at her friend. Emily is frowning again. "She came to my class once." Emily looks back at her. "Remember when I punched Jason?" She nods. "That was when Miss Kate came. She came with Mr. Castle." Emily looks back at Miss Kate. So does she. "Are you guys married, now?" she asks.

"We are," says Miss Kate. She's smiling wide now, like she's _really _happy and her eyes get all dreamy like the girls on the movies her Mom likes to watch. It's weird. Miss Kate is not in a movie. "We got married a few months ago," says Miss Kate. Her eyes are normal again, and she's looking down at Emily. "How about you, Emily. How are you doing?"

Emily makes this huffing sound. "I'm good," she says. Emily still sounds like she's mad at Miss Kate. She's not really sure why her friend doesn't like her baby sitter. "Does Mr. Castle still play princess with you?" asks Emily. She's looking at Miss Kate like this is some kind of competition, like Emily looks at her when they play board games at her house.

"Sometimes," says Miss Kate. "But not very much since he met you. I think that's your special thing now." Miss Kate smiles at Emily and her eyes get all wide. She doesn't know why, but it makes Emily smile. "Mr. Castle and I prefer playing cop together." Miss Kate is still smiling, and Emily is smiling, too. Brooke's not sure why everyone is so happy, but she smiles, too, because she has no reason to be mad.

"But I thought you really _are _a cop," says Emily. She frowns, because she didn't think of that. How can Miss Kate _play _cop if she actually _is _a cop? That's like when her Mom tries to play investigator, but she _can't _because investigator is actually her job. That's what her Mom says.

"Well, _I'm _a cop," says Miss Kate, "but Mr. Castle isn't. He just likes to pretend, even though he's actually a writer. But I let him play pretend. It makes him happy." Miss Kate shrugs her shoulders as she finishes talking, and presses her lips together like her Mom does when she wants a kiss, but Miss Kate doesn't want a kiss. She's not sure what Miss Kate wants.

"Oh," says Emily. She doesn't smile, but she doesn't look mad, either. And she doesn't say anything else. Instead, Emily turns towards her. It's like she forgot Miss Kate, all of a sudden. "Can we go play, now?" asks Emily. She smiles and nods in response. Emily runs towards the park, first, and she follows.

"Be careful, though, Brooke!" she hears Miss Kate call out after her.

Miss Kate and her friend start laughing, but she's not sure why.

* * *

"Tag! You're it!" she shouts as her fingers touch Emily's shirt. Emily stops running and makes a huffing sound, turning to face her. She smiling, happy because she's winning, but Emily is frowning. Emily crosses her arms over her chest, making the huffing sound again, and she does it, too, just because Emily did. And when Emily stomps her foot against the grass, she does, too.

"Why do we _always _play Tag?" asks Emily, her voice high in an annoying way. Her Mom calls it whining, whenever she tries to do it to get what she wants. "You _know _you're faster than me. It's not _fair._" Emily stomps her foot again, and makes that huffing sound again, too. Emily makes that huffing sound a lot, she realizes, as she tries to copy her friend.

"Well, what do _you _want to play? We can't play princess at the park," she points out. The sand is messy, and the grass will make her clothes all green, and there's absolutely no room for a tea party. So they can't play princess at the park. It just doesn't work. "And we can't play Hide and Go Seek, 'cause there's nowhere to hide," she continues, looking around at the trees and slide. "So, what do you want to play? Not Tag."

Emily looks down at the ground. She does, too, but there's nothing interesting there. So she kicks the grass. It makes dirt pop up and hit the grass. And the dirt turns the shiny tip of her shoe dirty. But she doesn't care. The dirt bouncing in the grass looks funny. So she kicks the dirt again, and smiles down at the sight. Emily kicks the dirt back at her, and she looks back up.

"I don't know," answer Emily. She lifts her shoulders up and lets them fall again and her teeth bite her lip. "I don't know a lot of games." Emily kicks the dirt again, and she does, too. "Do you know any more games?" asks Emily. She looks back up at her friend, and lifts her shoulders just like Emily did. She doesn't. Not really. They usually play princess, or Tag, or Hide and Seek.

"No," she says. "But maybe Tyler does. Tyler knows everything." Emily nods, so she looks around for Tyler. He's sitting under a tree, playing on his iPod. He's _always_ playing on his iPod. Her Mom complains about it and says he needs more fresh air. But even when Tyler _is _outside, he's on his iPod, except at school. She doesn't know what's so fun about the iPod, though.

She taps Emily's arm lightly and points to where Tyler is. Emily laughs, but she's not sure what's funny. So she just smiles, makes herself laugh, too, just because, and then starts running off towards where Tyler is sitting. Emily follows behind her, running slower. She has always been faster than Emily. Emily does catch up, though, right when they get to Tyler, but she's breathing heavy.

Tyler is wearing his headphones. When he's wearing them, he can't hear anything. At least, that's what he says when their Mom asks why he's been ignoring them. He doesn't look up when she gets next to him. On the screen of his iPod is a bike, a motorcycle, and when he taps the screen, it goes faster. She doesn't know what's so fun about that, but he seems to like it. She doesn't really care, though.

She taps his shoulder with the tip of her finger.

Tyler looks up at her. He looks annoyed, like their Dad does when Tyler ignores him because he's playing video games. He pulls on one side of his headphones so they fall off his head. They land around his neck, like they always do. That's how he wears them when he's not actually using them. She thinks it looks funny. He says it looks cool. It doesn't. Not really.

"What?" he asks. His voice sound mad. She thinks it's because she stopped him from playing his bike game, but she's not sure. Tyler uses that voice with her a lot. Their Dad says it's because she's his little sister. She doesn't know how that's a reason to be mad, but Dad says she'll understand when she's older. She doesn't really care, though. She gets mad at Tyler sometimes, too.

"We need a game to play," she tells him. He rolls his eyes like their Mom does and puts his iPod down on the grass. "We can't play princess because it's _dirty_," she explains, "and Emily doesn't want to play Tag with me because I'm too fast and she keeps _losing._" Emily huffs. Tyler laughs. She just smiles, because if Emily was losing, she was winning. "So we need a new game to play."

"Ask Kate," says Tyler. He grabs his headphones again and tries to put them back on his head, but they get stuck around his neck. She and Emily laugh and Tyler looks at them with mad eyes. "Why are you guys still here? Go ask Kate for a game. She's the babysitter."

She stomps her foot at him and shakes her head no. "Miss Kate is a _cop, _Tyler. She won't know any good games," she tells him. Emily makes a 'mhmm' sound like she agrees. Tyler lets his headphones fall back around his neck and gets this smile on his face like he's up to something bad. That smile always makes her Mom say 'uh oh'. Her Mom says it's Tyler's mischievous face. She doesn't know what mischievous means, though.

"I have an idea," he says. She smiles, and Emily makes that humming sound again. "Sit down." She does, just like she does for the assemblies at school, with her legs crossed. Emily sits down the same way. "You remember what we talked about, Brooke?" asks Tyler, his mischievous smile still on his face. She smiles, too, and nods her head yes.

"What?" asks Emily. "What did you guys talk about?"

She turns to Emily and smiles, bounding up and down on the ground. Her hands press against the dirt. She wraps her fingers around some of the grass and plucks it out of the dirt. She throws it towards Miss Kate, even though Miss Kate is too far away. "We're going to play pranks on Miss Kate. It was Brody's idea. He says that it'll be _really _funny. Tyler says so, too, so we're gonna do it."

Emily nods like she's happy, but then gets a look on her face like she's all confused. "What does _that_ have to do with our game, though?" asks Emily. She gets confused, too, then, because Emily's right. Pranking Miss Kate has nothing to do with their game.

"We'll get Kate to play with us," says Tyler. He's leaning forward now, too. Together, they make a small circle. "And Braden and Brody. They'll want to play, too," he adds, and she nods because he's right. Braden and Brody like playing all games. "Kate's a cop, right?" She nods, even though she's pretty sure Tyler already knows that Miss Kate's a cop. "So, we'll play a game called Cops and Robbers. It's sorta like Tag."

Emily huffs. "I don't want to play Tag. Brooke always wins," she says.

"Yeah, Tyler," she agrees. "Emily doesn't want to play Tag. That's why we came to you, for a _new _game," she tells him. She plucks more grass from the ground and throws it at him. He throws some back at her.

"I _know,_" he says. "That's why we won't play Tag. We'll play Cops and Robbers. There's a team of cops and a team of robbers. We'll all be the cops and Kate can be the robber and then we all have to chase her, together." He smiles. "We can make her trip and fall or get her full of sand or get her stuck somewhere, as long as she makes a fool of herself."

She laughs and nods, and Emily is laughing next to her. She nods, and Tyler smiles at her. Cops and Robbers it is.

* * *

Tyler says that she and Emily should be the ones to ask Miss Kate to play with them. He says that they're the cutest and the youngest and Miss Kate won't say no if they ask. Emily says she'll do it, because she wants to make Miss Kate look foolish, too. Emily says it's because she doesn't like Miss Kate, because Miss Kate is married to Mr. Rick. Brooke's not sure why that's a bad thing, but it doesn't really matter.

Tyler tells them to act super cute. Even cute than usual, he says. She's not sure what he means by that, but smiles and nods. Emily seems to understand better, though. She just wants to ask Miss Kate to play with them so she can make Miss Kate look funny. But Emily fixes her headband and fluffs her hair. And then Emily reaches over and takes her hand. It'll be cuter. That's what Tyler said.

They skip to Miss Kate. It reminds her of gym class when they were little. Their teacher made them skip all around the gym in circles. She would always skip with Emily. She really liked skipping. She used to skip around the house all the time, and her Mom said it was _super cute. _So now she's skipping to Miss Kate, because Tyler said to be cute, and her Mom said that _this _is cute and Tyler and her Mom are _always _right.

Miss Kate is still sitting with her friend. But now, Miss Kate's friend is holding a baby. He's a cute baby. Miss Kate is smiling at him, and so is her friend. The baby looks like he's sleeping, though. And Miss Kate's friend looks like she really loves the baby. Her Mom says that all Mommies love their babies. Miss Kate seems to like the baby, too. She taps his little foot with her finger and smiles when he wiggles like a worm.

She skips all the way to Miss Kate. Emily skips, too. They're still holding hands. They stop in front of the bench. Miss Kate looks up at them, away from the baby, with a smile on her face. She smiles back. So does Emily. It's part of being super cute. Miss Kate's friend says hi to them, and she bounces her baby in her arms. The baby wiggles again, and Miss Kate laughs. She says hi, too.

"Hi, Miss Kate," she says. She bounces up on her toes. She smiles at the wiggling baby, just like Miss Kate and her friend. She looks back up at Miss Kate, and Miss Kate is still smiling at her. "We want you to play with us," she announces. "Tyler wants to play Cops and Robbers. It's like Tag." She bounces on her toes again. "Can you play with us, Miss Kate. _Please?_"

Miss Kate's smile gets different. It's not as happy. It's not as big. But she makes it big again and nods her head yes. "Of course. If you guys want me to play," says Miss Kate. She stands up from the bench and says thank you to her friend. She's not sure why Miss Kate has to thank her friend, but she keeps smiling until Miss Kate looks back down at her. "Where is your brother? And the twins?"

She smiles and jumps up on the ground. Emily lets go of her hand. They turn to run to where Tyler and Braden and Brody are waiting. Miss Kate follows them. She can run fast. It will be hard to catch Miss Kate, she thinks, because she runs _so fast _when she's not even trying. Miss Kate runs with Emily. They run behind her because Emily is slower. But they all get to Tyler and Braden and Brody at the same time.

"Miss Kate's gonna play with us!" she tells the boys. She jumps up and claps her hands together. Miss Kate puts a hand on her shoulder. It makes her stip jumping. Tyler smiles in that mischievous way again. Braden and Brody are smiling too. They high five each other. She turns and high fives Emily, too, but she's not really sure why. Miss Kate laughs.

"So, Cops and Robbers?" asks Miss Kate. She turns to face Miss Kate and smiles. Miss Kate is smiling, too. "I haven't played that game since I was a little girl," adds Miss Kate. She's surprised that Miss Kate has played this game before. And she can't imagine Miss Kate as a little girl. But she keeps smiling. "Can I be a robber, though? I get to be a cop every day. It gets boring sometimes, you know."

Brooke smiles at Emily and Tyler and Braden and Brody. Miss Kate asking to be a robber without them trying to convince her made things easier.

"How can it be boring?" asks Braden. He looks confused, like Tyler does when he's doing his homework. "You have a badge and a gun and you get to catch the bad guys, Kate. That can't be boring. Plus, you keep New York City safe. It sounds pretty cool to me." He's smiling now, but then Brody hits his arm lightly and his smile disappears. Brody turns back to Miss Kate.

"Of course you can be a robber, Kate," he says. Brody looks back at Braden in this weird way, like he's trying to say something with just his eyes. She doesn't know what he's trying to say, though. He looks back at Miss Kate. "Besides, it _so _wouldn't be fair if you were a cop. You have _way _too much practice." Brody smiles and Braden nods. She nods too, because it makes sense. Miss Kate _is _a cop. She shouldn't _play _a cop.

"Okay. Thanks. Then I'll be a robber," says Miss Kate. Braden and Brody nod their heads. It looks funny. It looks kinda like they're the same person. Because Braden and Brody look _exactly _alike. She used to get them mixed up _all _the time.

"And we will _all _be the cops," says Tyler. He swings his hand around in a circle and points to all of them, even her and Emily. He's smiling, too. And his headphones are still around his neck. And his iPod is in his pocket, like he doesn't even care that he's _not _on it. It's weird for her. Her brother _never _wants to play with her. And he never wants to _actually _play. He just plays video games. But now, they're all playing together.

Miss Kate makes a gasping sound like she's surprised. "I have to run away from _all _of you. Geez, and I thought chasing criminals sounded hard." Braden and Brody laugh, and so does Emily. She laughs, too, but Tyler doesn't. She doesn't know why he doesn't laugh, but she doesn't know why she _is _laughing, so she stops. Tyler is older. Tyler is smarter.

"Yeah, you do," says Tyler. "You're an adult, that means you run faster. So it's only fair that we all get to work together," he adds. She frowns. She didn't think of that. But everyone else nods like they agree. So she does, too. And so does Emily. "We'll let you run away first, though. And then we'll go after you." He pulls on the round part of his headphones and then lets it go. It hits him in the neck, and she laughs.

"Okay," says Miss Kate. "I guess that's fair." And then she goes off running. Miss Kate is even faster now. She's not trying to stay behind with Emily. She runs all the way out in the grass, faster and faster. She stops next to a tree. It's branches hang over Miss Kate's head. She touches the leaves with her fingers like they're magical. It's funny. From this far away, Miss Kate looks like a little girl.

Tyler pulls them into a little circle. She's squished between Emily and Brody. Emily is squished, too, next to Tyler. Braden, Brody and Tyler don't seem to care. They say they need a plan to make Miss Kate look foolish. Brody says that they should trip her in the sand and in the grass while she's running. Braden says that they should handcuff her with Brody's fake handcuffs. Tyler says _that _idea was too obvious. He puts her and Emily in charge of tripping Miss Kate. She thinks it's because they're the lowest runners.

But still, she can picture Miss Kate full of sand and dirt and grass and it's funny. So she agrees. So does Emily.

* * *

Tyler and Braden and Brody run fast. Miss Kate runs even faster. She can see them all from where she's hiding. She can see Miss Kate run in circles around the trees. Tyler and Braden and Brody try to split up. They try to go at Miss Kate from all directions. Miss Kate really shouldn't be able to get away. But she _can. _And she _does. _And she keeps running super fast. Tyler and Braden and Brody keep chasing her. But they can't catch her.

She hides behind the tree again when Miss Kate comes running towards her. She presses her hands against the trunk. She kicks the dirt and the grass. The dirt smudges on her shoes. The tree bark hurts her hands. She looks up at the leaves. Miss Kate touched the leaves like they were magic. She thinks the leaves look normal. They don't look magical. But she still wishes she could touch them. She's too short.

She hears Braden scream. It's loud and it hurts her ears. And then Brody makes this sound like a bear. It's like he's growling. She looks around the tree at him. He's running really fast, even faster than he usually runs. He's trying really, _really _hard to catch Miss Kate. But Miss Kate keeps running really, _really _fast. She's still faster than Brody. But she's running right to Emily's tree.

She looks around her tree to watch Miss Kate and Emily. Miss Kate is running really fast. Emily is hiding behind her tree. Brody is following Miss Kate. Braden and Tyler are making sure she goes right to the tree. They're not running as fast as Brody, though. They just want to make sure she keeps running straight. That's what Tyler said they have to do when they made their plan.

Miss Kate does just like Tyler wanted. She runs in a straight line. Miss Kate is running right to Emily's tree. Miss Kate is running _so fast. _She watches and watches and comes out from behind her tree to watch even more. She watches as Miss Kate runs. She watches as Brody runs. She watches as Miss Kate gets away from Tyler and Braden and keeps running right to Emily's tree. And she watches when Emily jumps out from behind the tree.

Miss Kate is running too fast to stop. Emily screams "Boo!" really loud. She holds her hands out like claws. Miss Kate jumps. But she can't stop. So she turns. Miss Kate turns so she doesn't run right into Emily. Brody stops running. Braden and Tyler stop running. Miss Kate keeps running. And she almost runs right into the tree. She doesn't though. Miss Kate misses the tree. Well, she _almost _misses the tree.

The leaves hit Miss Kate in the and her face hits the tree. She thinks it scratches, but she's not sure. Miss Kate's hand comes up to her face. She touches it like it hurts. It's like her Mom does when she's looking for blood. Miss Kate isn't bleeding, though. Her face isn't red. She looks fine. Well, she doesn't look _hurt. _Miss Kate does have messy hair with leaves in it. And her shirt is all twisty. Miss Kate looks funny. But she doesn't look hurt.

And Miss Kate keeps running. And Tyler and Braden and Brody are laughing. They all keep running. Emily is on the ground. She's laying on her back and laughing. Even from her own tree, she can hear Emily laughing loudly. She's trying not to laugh. She presses against the tree. It hurts her back and her hands. But she has to keep hiding, so she can surprise Miss Kate, too.

Braden and Brody and Tyler make it so Miss Kate is running to _her _tree now. She hides behind it. She hears Emily laughing. She hears Tyler and Braden and Brody laughing, too. And she can hear them running. She can hear Miss Kate running, too. They're all running really, _really _fast. She peeks around the tree. Miss Kate is coming right towards her.

She jumps out from behind the tree, just like Emily did. She holds her hands out and curls her fingers, just like claws. She holds her hands up high in the air. And she shouts as loud as she can, "Boo!" Tyler gives her a thumb's up. Braden and Brody are laughing again. She growls at Miss Kate like a bear. It sounds sorta like Brody did, but it sounds more girly than when he did it.

Miss Kate jumps up. Her eyes go all wide. It makes her look really, _really _funny. She laughs. She can't help but laugh because Miss Kate looks so scared. Tyler looked like that when they gave him a surprise party once. They still laugh about it. She laughs at Miss Kate. She falls on the ground and keeps laughing. But her eyes are open just enough to see Miss Kate keep running.

Miss Kate's mouth gets full of leaves. She spits them out over and over again and makes sounds like Tyler makes when they eat fish. She sees Miss Kate take the leaves out of her mouth with her hands. She throws them at the ground. And Miss Kate almost falls. She's wobbly on her feet. And she _still _keeps running away from Tyler and Braden and Brody. And Tyler and Braden and Brody aren't even running after her anymore.

She gets off the ground when Tyler and Braden and Brody keep running again. She stands up and wipes the dirt and grass off her dress. The green and brown is ugly with her pink dress. And some of the dirt makes stains that won't come off yet. She frowns at her dress, but then sees that Tyler and Braden and Brody are getting Miss Kate close to the sand. She runs after them.

Tyler and Braden and Brody make Miss Kate run in circles again. She still has leaves in her hair and she still wobbles on her feet. She watches Miss Kate as she runs in circles around the trees. She watches as Brody and Braden and Tyler run after Miss Kate. She watches and watches and watches until Miss Kate starts running towards the sand again. This time, she's running _right at it. _

She hides underneath the park. Emily is hiding there, too. That was part of Tyler's plan. She turns to Emily and smiles. Emily smiles back and gives her a thumb's up. She gives Emily a thumb's up, too. And then Emily looks away from her. They both peek around the park. Miss Kate and Tyler and Braden and Brody are getting close, now. They're running fast and right to the sand.

Miss Kate hops onto the sand hill. Tyler and Braden and Brody do, too. She gets out from under the park. So does Emily. She smiles at Emily and Emily smiles back and they nod at each other, like people do on TV shows. Miss Kate is running towards them. Tyler gives her a thumbs up. She smiles at him. Miss Kate is getting closer. She's running faster and faster. She holds her foot out with her toes in the air and looks away.

She opens her eyes because Tyler and Braden and Brody and Emily are all laughing. Miss Kate is on the ground, on her belly. Her arms are up over her head. She looks squished in the sand, like a pancake. She looks funny. Brody is kicking sand on Miss Kate's back while he laughs. Tyler is, too. Braden and Emily are just laughing. They're holding their tummies while they laugh. She's laughing, too.

Miss Kate makes a grumbling sound like her Dad does when her aunt Carly shows up. And she rolls onto her back. Her eyes are squeezed closed real tight. And she puts her hands in the sand as she sits up. Her shirt is full of sand. So is her face. And so is her hair. Sand is everywhere, all over Miss Kate. But Miss Kate doesn't even look mad. She just stands up and wipes her hands all over her body to get rid of the sand. And she takes an elastic off her arm and puts a ponytail in her hair.

"You got me," says Miss Kate with a smile on her face. She's still laughing, though. So are Tyler and Braden and Brody and Emily. So they don't answer. Miss Kate doesn't seem mad at that, either, though. "Apparently I make a better cop than I do a robber," adds Miss Kate. She laughs with them. And they all laugh together, standing in the sand, because Miss Kate is still full of sand and she makes a bad robber and it's funny.

* * *

It's Braden's idea. He's the one that says they should see if Miss Kate is a good cop. She thinks Miss Kate has to be a good cop. Because being a cop is Miss Kate's job. And you have to be good at your job. Or you'll get fired. That's what her Mom told her once. Her Mom says that that's why math is so important at school. She still doesn't understand. But still, Miss Kate should be good at her job.

But Brody and Tyler and Emily all think Braden is _right. _They all think they should make Miss Kate be the cop now. And then Miss Kate will have to catch them all. Braden says it's all part of his plan. She tries to warn them that Miss Kate is a _really _fast runner, but nobody listens. They all say they can run even _faster _than Miss Kate. And Miss Kate says she's not that fast. She just looks fast because she's tall. Brooke doesn't understand what being tall has to do with running.

But Miss Kate says she'll play. And Tyler and Braden and Brody and Emily all want to play. And she doesn't want to be playing nothing alone. So she plays, too. Miss Kate smiles at her and says they can do something she wants later. That makes Tyler and Braden and Brody grumble. But it makes her smile. And she nods at Miss Kate and says thank you.

Miss Kate lets them all run away. She says that they let her have a head start, so they should have one, too. She stays with Emily. They run over to the trees and sit down behind the trunk. Tyler and Braden and Brody all stand right out in the open. They wave their arms at Miss Kate. She smiles as Miss Kate waves at _her, _and waves back. And then Miss Kate starts running after the boys.

She rests her back against the tree trunk. Emily does, too. The tree is very big and very tall and the leaves are very high. She looks up at them and smiles. She tells Emily about how Miss Kate likes the leaves. She tells her about how Miss Kate touches them like they're magic. Emily says that's weird because the leaves are normal. She agrees. It _is_ weird.

Braden shouts when he runs. He runs really fast. He runs all around the grass and the trees. When Miss Kate gets close to catching him, he runs even faster. That's when he screams. He screams when he runs as fast as he can. And he laughs when Miss Kate can't catch him. And then Miss Kate gets close again and he runs and screams and she laughs from behind the tree because he looks really funny.

Brody makes that growling noise when he runs. Miss Kate gets close to him and he runs as fast as he can, _so fast, _and growls like a bear. And he turns around sometimes and shows Miss Kate his teeth like he's trying to scare her. She wants to tell Brody that teeth won't scare Miss Kate, but he won't hear her. He's too far. And she likes watching him. He looks funny. He's acting like an animal.

Tyler doesn't make noises when he runs. He just runs. He runs faster and faster and around the trees in eights and then faster and faster. Miss Kate runs after him. He doesn't look back. He doesn't try to scare her. He doesn't laugh and he doesn't scream. He just keeps running away until Brody tells Miss Kate to run after _him. _She's glad. Brody is a lot more fun to watch than Tyler.

Miss Kate laughs. She laughs really loud while she runs and plays. She runs around in circles and follows the boys. Miss Kate is fun to watch, too. She holds her hands out like the people on her Dad's sports shows. And she jumps around and gets hit in the face with the leaves on the short trees. She runs fast. Miss Kate runs _really _fast, but she doesn't catch the boys.

Miss Kate is chasing after Brody when Tyler shows up behind the tree. She turns to him. So does Emily. He leans down and whispers something in Emily's ear. She can't hear it. But it makes Emily laugh and nod her head. Tyler smiles. Emily gets up off the ground and runs out to the grass. She hops up and down and waves her arms and tells Miss Kate to chase after her. Miss Kate stops chasing Brody and starts running after Emily.

Tyler smiles. So does Braden. And so does Brody. And Tyler leans closer to her and whispers in her ear. He tells her to go get her backpack and to meet him under the big yellow slide. She nods her head and goes running towards the sand hill. She left her backpack under the park by the sandbox. Miss Kate is still chasing Emily. Tyler goes to talk to Braden and Brody.

She grabs her _Frozen _backpack and puts it on her shoulders. The big slide isn't very far. She walks over to it and sits down in the sand to wait for Tyler. She can still see Miss Kate chasing Emily. Emily doesn't run as fast as the boys. But Miss Kate still doesn't catch her. Emily laughs while she runs. Miss Kate does, too. And Tyler and Braden and Brody come and find her under the slide.

Tyler takes construction paper out of her backpack. He puts it on the sand. He takes out markers, too. He gives one to Braden and one to Brody. He doesn't give one to her. She doesn't know why. Braden has a blue piece of paper, a pair of safety scissors and a red marker. He cuts a rectangle shape from his paper. On the paper, in big messy letters, he writes 'BECK-BUTT!'. She doesn't know what that means. Brody has a green paper and an orange marker. He writes 'SPANK ME!' after cutting a rectangle, too. Tyler has two papers. One's pink and the other is red. He has a blue marker. On the pink paper he writes 'WIDE LOAD!' and on the red one he writes 'DON'T SMELL THIS!'. He cuts the words out of the paper in more rectangle shapes.

"What are those for?" she asks. Braden and Brody and Tyler are reading each other's papers and laughing. Tyler reaches into her bag and takes out the tape. He puts a piece on the red paper and on the pink paper. He gives the tape to Brody. He puts a piece on his green paper and then gives the tape to Braden. Braden puts a piece on his blue paper. Tyler gives the piece of pink paper to her.

"We're going to stick them to Kate's butt," he says. Braden and Brody laugh. That makes Tyler laugh, too. She reads her paper again. It doesn't seem funny. She doesn't even know what it means. But she smiles at Tyler anyway. He smiles back and gives her a thumb's up. She gives him one back. She laughs, too, even though she doesn't know what's so funny. At least Tyler's paper is funny. And the idea of doing something to Kate's butt is funny, too. Butts are always funny.

Tyler peeks out from under the slide to look at Miss Kate and Emily. They're running towards the sand again. Tyler gets out from under the slide. Braden and Brody follow him. She follows them. Emily runs into the sand. She climbs up the ladder really fast. Miss Kate follows her. She's going really fast, too. Tyler and Braden and Brody climb up the stairs. She follows them. Emily goes on her knees. She crawls into the crawl tube. Miss Kate follows. But before Miss Kate's legs can get through the tube, she stops moving. She kicks her legs out. She's stuck. Miss Kate's butt is sticking up in the air.

They all laugh. She can even hear Emily laughing, even though she can't see Emily. Braden and Brody run over to Miss Kate. Brody puts his paper on her butt first. Braden puts his on next. She can still see both. Tyler points to Miss Kate's butt and tells Brooke to put hers on next. She does. She sticks it right under Braden's. And then Tyler goes and sticks his on, too. Braden and Brody and Tyler start laughing really loud. She does, too, because Miss Kate looks really funny with her butt up in the air and full of signs.

Miss Kate just grumbles.

* * *

Miss Kate gets out of the tube. She takes the signs of her butt and crumples them into balls. And then she goes back to sit with her friend and the baby. Miss Kate throws the crumpled papers in the garbage can when she walks by it. Tyler and Braden and Brody are still laughing. So are other people. Even some of the Moms are laughing. Other Moms are getting mad at their kids for laughing. She's not sure what she's supposed to do.

Emily asks if she has more paper. Emily isn't laughing anymore either. She says yes. Her backpack is still under the park, though. That's where Tyler left it. They leave Tyler and Braden and Brody where they are and go down to the sandbox. She grabs her backpack by its strap. Emily says they should draw. They go to the grass. Emily sits down under a tree. She sits down next to her.

She takes construction paper out of her backpack. Emily takes a pink paper. She uses a yellow one. She puts all the markers in the grass so she and Emily can share. She asks Emily what she's going to draw. Emily says she's going to draw Elsa and Anna. She says she's going to draw the beach. Emily asks why. She says that it's because she likes the beach. Her Mom takes her there every summer.

They lay on their tummies. It's hard to draw on the grass because the grass is squishy. It makes her sun look all wiggly. Emily says it looks fine. She says the sun rays make it look wiggly in real life. She doesn't know if that's true, but she doesn't try to fix her sun anymore. Emily's Elsa and Anna looks good, though. Emily is a better drawer than she is. But she's a faster runner.

They keep drawing until Brody runs up to them. He's excited. Braden runs up to them, too. He's talking really fast. So fast she can't understand him. Tyler comes, too, but he's walking. She stuffs her picture into her backpack and stands up. Emily holds her picture and stands up, too. Brody is holding something in his hands. Braden says it's a frog. He says there's a frog there because of the pond that's close to the park. Tyler says they're going to use the frog to trick Miss Kate. He asks she and Emily if they wanna watch.

They do. They follow Braden and Brody all the way to Miss Kate. She says they should get Miss Kate away from her friend. Brody asks why. He says they can get Miss Kate's friend with the frog, too. She says she doesn't want the frog to touch the cute baby. But then Miss Kate stands up from the bench. She walks all the way to where they are, across the path and into the sand and right up to Brody.

Brody and Braden and Tyler are all smiling when Miss Kate comes to them. She smiles, too. So does Emily. Tyler holds his hands up to Miss Kate and tells her to guess what he has. Miss Kate guesses a rock. Brody says no. Then Miss Kate guesses a leaf. Brody says no again. Braden gives Miss Kate a hint. He says it has something to do with water. Miss Kate guesses a lilypad. Brody says no again. And then Miss Kate gives up. She asks to see what's in Brody's hands.

Tyler and Braden start laughing before anything even happens. Brody opens his hands slowly, and the frog jumps. Emily jumps, too, and runs away. Emily must be scared of frogs. The frog is green and slimy and it jumps right onto Miss Kate. It makes Miss Kate scream real loud like she's scared. She tries to hit the frog like her Dad tries to hit bugs at the beach.

The frog lands on Miss Kate's shoulder. Miss Kate tries to hit it. The frog sticks its tongue out. It's like its trying to catch a bug, just like frogs do in movies. She's never actually seen a frog do this. She wonders what its trying to catch. She thinks it might be Miss Kate's earring. But the frog misses the earring. His tongue hits Miss Kate right on the next. Miss Kate squeals and jumps and tries to hit the frog again.

The frog jumps off Miss Kate's shoulder and into the sand. Brody runs after it. He knocks Miss Kate onto her butt as he passes her. Tyler and Braden are laughing. So are other kids. She laughs, too. And Miss Kate grumbles. She says it's time to go.

* * *

**Once again, thanks to my beta la z boy.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Brody Spencer.**

* * *

He runs past Kate to go after the frog. His shoulder bumps against her belly, and since she's already leaning over slightly because of the frog, it knocks her right over onto her butt. He doesn't have time to stop and laugh at her, though, because the frog is still hopping away. He hears his brother and Tyler laughing loudly. Emily and Brooklyn are laughing, too, but quieter.

It doesn't take him all that long to catch the frog. Like Braden guessed it would, the frog starts hopping towards the pond. Sometimes he hates that his twin brother is so smart and science-y, but in moments like these, he actually really likes it. Sometimes it's nice to have a brother who's good at everything he hates. It keeps him from having to do the science and math of all these pranks they like to pull.

He catches the frog between his hands. It ribbits and tries to hop away, but his fingers are like a cage. He turns back towards Kate and his friends. Kate's standing up again, wiping the dirt off her butt. Tyler and Braden are still laughing. Brooklyn is hugging her friend. He can see the bright blue of her _Frozen _backpack from where he stands. The frog tries to jump out of his hands again.

He walks back to the group. Well, first he walks by them and to one of the tall trees. Braden left their backpacks there. He kneels on the grass next to their bags and opens Braden's. His brother has this plastic box thing that their Mom gave him for Christmas last year. He collects bugs and stuff from parks and their backyard to keep them in his tank. Braden likes to watch the bugs, for _science. _He doesn't get it, but once again, Braden's love of science is working to his advantage.

The drops the frog into the plastic container and quickly snaps the lid into place, so the frog can't jump away. The frog looks a lot bigger in the container than Braden's bugs do, but it still fits. He figures it'll be fine in the container until they get back to Kate's house. Then he'll ask Braden if he knows what would be best for the frog. Braden will know.

He puts the container back in Braden's blue backpack and zips it up. He picks up both backpacks and carries them back over to where the group is still standing. They're not laughing anymore. And Emily is gone. He sees her talking to another woman, probably her Mom. Kate is talking to Tyler, Brooklyn and his brother. Brooke is nodding her head over and over again, and Tyler goes running towards the monkey bars, where he left his lime green backpack.

When he gets to them, Kate tells him that she was just telling the others that it's time for them to go home. It's almost supper time, apparently, and she has to start dinner soon. He just nods. Brooklyn starts asking Kate about dinner, wanting to know what they're going to eat. He doesn't really care about what they're going to eat, so he stops listening.

Braden asks why he has their backpacks. He lets both Braden's blue backpack and his own fall off his shoulders. He catches the straps in his elbows, and Braden takes the red bag from him and throws it over his shoulder. He hands his brother the other bag, and Braden takes it from him without question. Kate is still talking to Brooke about dinner, so he leans close to Braden and tells him about the frog.

Braden is good at not reacting now. When they were little, Braden was a tattletale. Braden was the good twin and Brody was the evil one. It was only when they got old enough to come up with complicated pranks that he and Braden started working together. That's when Braden stopped tattletaling. They've worked together ever since to trick the adults in their life. Their Mom hates it. He actually doesn't mind it.

Tyler comes back with his bag and says he's ready to go. Kate asks him and Braden if they're ready, too. He says yes for both of them. He almost always answers for Braden, too. Braden never argues with him. Kate says that's good and then asks them if they remember the way back to the road. He does. Brooklyn says she doesn't. Kate says that's okay. She says they can just follow her.

They're about to leave the park when the frog ribbits again. Tyler turns to stare at him. Kate asks what that sound was, as though she knows of something besides _frogs _that ribbit. He's about to says something about Kate hearing things when Braden steps in. Braden says something about their being frogs all over the park because of the pond and that _that _must be what Kate is hearing. Kate seems to agree, because she nods and turns to start walking again. Brooklyn walks right next to Kate, bouncing as she walks.

Tyler pulls his headphones back onto his ears and taps the screen of his iPod a few times, probably to pick a song. They all start walking away. He stays behind for a moment. He has to let Kate get far enough, so she doesn't hear him talking to Braden. But Kate's talking to Brooklyn about the leaves and magic and he's not really sure what any of that means, but he is sure that Kate's distracted enough to not hear them.

He thanks his brother for explaining the ribbit to Kate and asks if Braden knows how to keep the frog quiet. Braden says he can't make the frog be quiet. He says that the frog is a wild animal and is probably making noise because it's scared. But Braden also says that they're lucky, because in the park, Kate will think the frog's noises are just random frogs, and once they get to the city, the sounds of cars and stuff will be louder than the frog, so Kate won't hear it.

He nods. Kate turns around to ask them if they're coming. He runs after the group. Braden follows, but he doesn't run as fast.

* * *

Kate tells them to stay close as they walk through New York. The streets are busy and dangerous and there's big groups of people walking on the sidewalks. She says she doesn't want any of them to get lost or separated from the group. Brooke holds Kate's hand as she walks. He doesn't think Tyler even hears, because he's still wearing his headphones. Braden stays next to him. His brother is always more of a scared-y cat than he is.

They get to Kate's building pretty quick. The walk is pretty short and nobody gets lost. Kate says "Hi," to the man standing at the door. She calls him Eduardo. Brooke says "Hi," to him, too. Tyler still isn't paying attention to anything. Braden greets Eduardo, too. Brody doesn't. He just waves.

Kate leads them all to the elevator. Brooke gets on first. Kate follows. She taps the button for the top floor with her finger. Tyler goes right to the corner of the elevator. Braden goes to the other corner. He puts the backpacks on the ground next to him and huffs. He gets on the elevator last. He peeks out of the elevator to make sure that no one else is coming and then slaps his hand against the buttons, hitting as many as he can. Some of them light up. Kate gasps. He just smiles and presses every single button, and then the one to close the doors.

"Brody?" asks Kate. He turns around and leans against the elevator's metal wall. The buttons are still all lit up as the elevator begins to move upward. "Why did you do that?" asks Kate. She raises her eyebrows like that's supposed to scare him.

He shrugs. "I like elevators," he tells her. Kate shakes her head and lets out a big breath. She leans back against the elevator's wall, too, and crosses her arms over her chest. She leans her head back and takes another deep breath before sighing again. "Besides, it's too late to change it now," he tells her, motioning to the doors as they open up to the first floor and slide closed again.

Kate shrugs. "You're right," she tells him, and he can't help the wide, satisfied smile that comes across his face. "I guess we better get comfortable. This'll be a long ride up." And with that, Kate sinks down to her butt, crossing her legs in front of her, resting her back against the elevator wall. She takes the backpacks from Brooklyn and Tyler and puts them in the corner with his and Braden's.

Tyler slides down the wall and sits down. Brooklyn takes a seat right next to Kate, leaning her head against Kate's shoulder. He sits down, too, and Braden sits down next to him. Kate is talking to Brooke again, explaining why the elevator ride will be so long, and Braden turns to him.

"The frog might make a sound, you know," whispers his brother. Braden motions with his hand to where the blue backpack is lying under all the others, the frog trapped inside it. "We don't have an excuse for their being frog sounds in the elevator."

He shrugs. "We'll have to distract Kate, then," he tells Braden, and he leans back against the wall comfortably. Next to him, the doors slide open again, the second floor revealed to them, before sliding shut and the elevator jerks back into action. "Kate?" he asks. "We should all get to know each other more." He glances at Braden, Brooke and Tyler. "Well, we already know each other, but we have to get to know you. Lets play Truth or Dare."

"I think it's a little small in here to play Truth or Dare," says Kate. She points to the elevator's walls as the bell dings and the doors open. The doors are closing again, and she laughs. "But we can play just Truth, if that's okay. You guys can ask me whatever you want," she adds. She leans back. "Why don't you go first, Brody?"

He smiles. "Okay. Have you ever peed in a pool?" he asks.

Miss Kate's eyes go big and wide, but then she smiles. "Yup," she says. "When I was little, though. Not as an adult. But, really, hasn't _every _kid?"

He's surprised that she doesn't even sound embarrassed, but he just shrugs, not willing to admit that he has too. When he was younger, of course, not anytime recently. But still. This is supposed to be about them asking _her _questions, not her asking _them _questions. He turns to Tyler, but Tyler still has his headphones on, so he turns to Brooklyn and tells her it's her turn.

Brooklyn thinks for a moment before speaking, "Do you wanna be a princess or a mermaid more?" asks Brooklyn. Kate presses her lips together like she's thinking hard, and her eyes go big and wide. He knows she's not _actually _thinking that hard, but Brooke doesn't. He guesses that that's why she's doing this.

"A princess," says Kate eventually, and Brooklyn's eyes go big and wide and she tells Kate that she would rather be a princess, too. "Who wouldn't want to be a princess? You get to wear big, pretty dresses and have people wait on you. That sounds _awesome._" Brooklyn nods her agreement, and he tells Braden it's his turn.

"If you woke up and you were invisible, what's the first thing you'd do?" asks his brother, and _of course _it's something science-y, well, science fiction-y. It's such a Braden thing to ask, but Miss Kate actually seems to think about this one. He does, too, but he's not sure what he would do first. Maybe pull a prank on his Mom. She's always fun to get.

Kate shrugs eventually. "I don't know," she tells them. "Maybe I'd follow my boss around and get proof that she actually likes my team. That would be cool to know." She shrugs again. "Or maybe my dad, see what he really thinks about Cas– uh, Rick."

"_Boring,_" he tells her, and Kate just shrugs, like she won't even pretend that _that _idea is actually cool. "What's your favourite color?" he asks.

"I feel like _that's_ more boring than asking me what I would do if I was invisible," says Kate, and he just shrugs, smiling at her across the elevator. "But, my favorite color's purple."

"Is that the color of your underwear _right now_?" he asks and Kate's eyes get big and wide all over again. Her cheeks turn bright red and pink and he laughs. So does Braden. Brooklyn seems to not understand, or not find it funny. He guesses that must be a little girl thing.

"I don't think that's any of your business," says Kate, but he's still laughing and is barely listening. Kate just groans and leans back against the wall.

They keep playing the game after that, the elevator still opening and closing on each floor. It's a miracle they don't come across anybody waiting on each floor. Brooklyn's questions are almost all about princesses. She asks which princess is Kate's favorite. Kate says it's Mulan. Brooke asks which Prince Kate would rather marry. Kate doesn't have an answer. She says she likes the husband she already has. That makes him roll his eyes, but Brooklyn says that its sweet.

Braden asks a bunch of questions about school. He asks if Kate ever skipped school, and she says yes, a lot when she was a teenager. She also says that they should _never _skip school, even though she did. He also asks what her favorite subject was, and she says she really likes History. Braden also asks if she ever failed a test or project, and Kate says she did a few times in high school, because she was too busy being rebellious. She tells them they shouldn't be rebellious teenagers, at all.

He tries to keep _his_ questions embarrassing. He asks if she ever pooped her pants as an adult. Kate says once when she was twenty and got food poisoning. He asks if she ever puked on someone. She tells him that she puked on Rick once, when she was drunk. She tells him to _never _get that drunk, because it's _definitely _not worth it. He asks about her most embarrassing fart, and she says she farted really loud once in front of her team members, Ryan and Espo.

They get to the floor right before the one with Kate's house and Kate tells Brooklyn that she can ask one last question. Brooklyn looks like she's thinking very hard, so hard that she's still thinking when the doors close again and Kate tells her that she's going to run out of time if she doesn't hurry.

"Have you ever kissed a boy?" asks Brooklyn. Kate laughs softly. He and Braden laugh loud, because that is such a _stupid _last question. Kate stares at them angrily and turns back to Brooklyn. She says she's kissed a boy before. She says she's married now, so that's okay.

He's still laughing. "Of course she's kissed a boy," he says, his breath getting fast, "she's _married. _Didn't you see her and Rick earlier?" he asks Brooklyn. "She's done a lot more than kiss a boy, Brooke. She's had _sex _with a boy before. That's what married people do." Kate stares at him angrily again.

Brooklyn looks up at Kate, her eyes big and wide and she looks really confused. "Miss Kate," she asks, and she taps Kate's arm with the tip of her finger, "what's _sex_?"

Kate opens her mouth, appearing confused about what to say, but looks really happy when the doors open up again.

* * *

When they get back into Kate's house, she tells them they should all go and watch TV while she gets changed into something more comfortable and less grimy with frog slime. He follows Brooke into the living room, and Brooke puts it on her own TV shows. He groans when he sees _My Little Pony _start playing, and turns back to his brother.

"You go hide the frog in our room," he tells Braden. "And then you have to get the shampoo ready for that other prank we talked about, remember?" he asks. Braden nods and smiles, the memory of the pranks they planned together with Tyler at school on yesterday making them both laugh softly as Brooklyn keeps watching her TV show. "I'll distract Kate while you do that, okay?"

Braden grabs both their bags and goes running up the stairs to put them both in the guest room where Kate told them they'd be sleeping. Tyler is busy on his iPod and Brooklyn is really interested in her TV show. They don't even seem to notice that Braden is gone. He leaves, too, and nobody seems to notice. Brooke just looks away from the TV and smiles before watching _My Little Pony _again.

He walks quietly through the apartment, down the hallway, past the bathroom door and all the way to the door that he saw Kate take. On the way, he passes the kitchen table and finds Kate's phone sitting on it, on and unlocked and he smiles. _Perfect. _He grabs Kate's phone and carries it around with him. It's just like his Mom's phone, the ever so popular iPhone that, by now, is so easy to understand how to use.

He walks through the door that Kate took. It leads to a big office full of books. There's a big desk made of wood and a black laptop that's closed on top of it. One of the walls is make of bookshelves. He remembers his Mom saying that Rick's a writer, and Kate's a cop, so he guess that this is Rick's office where he does his writing. It seems pretty boring, writing and reading books, but Rick apparently likes it.

He turns his attention to the walls made of books. Most of the books are tight together and he can't see what's on the other side of them. But in some places there's awards or holes between the books, and he knows that he'll be able to see what's on the other side of the wall there. There's also a big space between the two bookshelves that make up the walls, but he doesn't want to go there in case Kate sees him.

He goes to where some of the books are leaning on their sides and peeks through one of the cracks. Like he guessed, it's Kate and Rick's bedroom. And Kate is standing next to another door, wearing only her bra and pants. There's clothes sitting on the bed, and her shirt is sitting on the floor. He guesses that the clothes on the bed are the clean clothes she's going to put on.

He watches Kate. It's strange, really. He's never seen a girl without her shirt before. And Kate is tall and pretty and she's wearing only her bra. It's actually kinda awesome. The boys at school will love hearing about _this_. And now she's pulling off her pants, pulling them down and over her butt and he can see her underwear. It barely covers her butt when she bends over to pull her pants over her feet. And, _oh, _her underwear actually _is _purple!

He brings her phone up and snaps a picture of her bending over, her butt almost all visible with it, through the cracks between the books. He wants her to turn around now so he can see both sides of her. Boobs will make for even better pictures to embarrass her with. And she _does_ turn around, she turns around and lifts her arms up over her head and stretches. It makes her chest push out. He takes a picture of that, too. And another as she pulls her shirt on and then when she bends over to put on her black pants.

He pulls up her texting app. He finds the button that selects all her contacts, and then, with a press of his thumb against the screen, he sends the picture of Kate with her boobs pushed out to _everyone _on her contact list. He wonders who exactly is on the list. Rick probably is, and he'll probably like the picture. But Kate probably also has friends in her list, and maybe even the boss she was talking about earlier and the her team members, Ryan and Espo. He wonders what _they'll_ think about the picture.

He goes to leave. He plans on leaving and putting Kate's phone back on the table and waiting until somebody replies to the text message for her to realize what's going on. But it doesn't work out that way. He goes to walk away, but when he pushes on the bookshelf, one of the books falls onto the floor in Kate's bedroom, and he hears her ask who's there, and then he gets a new idea.

He turns to her in the doorway and waves with the hand holding the phone. It makes her eyes go wide and her mouth opens a little. She finishes pulling her pants up quickly before coming towards him. She's walking slowly, but he can tell from her red cheeks that she's mad. He wonders what's on her phone that has her so mad about him just _holding _it, but he can't actually check.

"Brody," says Kate. She holds her hand out to him like she wants him to give her something. He just looks down at her hand and then back up at her face and shrugs. "Give me the phone," says Kate. He shakes his head no, and pulls the phone against his chest. "Okay, then. What are you doing with my phone, Brody?" asks Kate.

He smiles up at her. And then he looks back down at the phone. He taps the texting app again and pulls open Kate's conversation with the first person on the list. It's someone named Alexis. He's pretty sure that his Mom and Sam and Rick talk about Alexis sometimes. He thinks that's Rick's daughter. Probably not someone Kate wants this picture sent to. He holds the phone up to her so she can see.

"Alexis?" shouts Kate, and he laughs as her eyes go really wide and her cheeks turn really red. "You sent a picture of me in my underwear to my stepdaughter, Brody? How… How did you even _get _that picture?" But then she turns to where the book fell from the shelf and seems to get the answer without him saying anything. She sighs. "Who else did you send this to?" asks Kate.

He smiles. "I sent it to _everyone!_" he tells her. And then he takes off running. She follows him as he runs out of her room and out of the office and down the hallway. Braden is in the kitchen taking care of what they need for the other prank they have planned, so he can't go in there. So he keeps running. He runs into the living room and runs around the couch, making Tyler look up from his iPod and Brooklyn tells him to move because he's blocking her view of the TV. Kate follows him.

He keeps running. He runs around the couch three times before deciding that he has to move on. He sees Braden leave the kitchen and walk towards Kate's bedroom, and he decides to go for the stairs. He runs up the stairs as fast as he can, runs across the landing and up more stairs and he goes through the first door he finds.

It's a big bedroom that's decorated _way too much. _The comforter is covered with pink flowers and green vines that are sewn into it. The window has big, heavy curtains hanging on it. The bed has a drape thing on the top of it that matches the curtains. It doesn't look like anyone's been here for a while, though. The bed is perfectly made and the room is cold. He wonders whose room it is.

He can't think about it for too long, though, because Kate is still following him. He runs into the room and onto the bed and when Kate appears in the doorway, he starts jumping up and down. She looks really mad, much angrier than she was earlier. Her cheeks are all red and her mouth is in a thin line just like his school's grumpy librarian's _always _is. And he laughs and jumps and waves the phone in the air.

She tries to catch him. Her fingers miss his leg when she tries to grab it, and she falls onto the bed as he takes off running. The phone sings and shakes in his hand and he has a feeling people are now reacting to the picture he sent everyone. He wonders if it's Alexis. Or maybe it's Rick. Or Kate's boss. It could be anyone, but he bets that, no matter who it is, it's funny. He wishes he could check, but he has to keep running.

He almost goes into the guest bedroom, but then he sees the frog sitting on the nightstand and decides to go into the room across the hall instead. This room is painted light green and the bed is covered in a purple blanket that matches the color of his Mom's favorite flowers. There's pictures on the walls and medals and trophies. He guesses that it's Alexis' room, and he runs to sit on her bed and wait.

Kate gets to the room, still running, and he bounces up and down on the bed, just like before. He holds the phone up and waves it in the air for Kate to see. She seems to calm down for a moment and she walks into Alexis' room slowly. Kate sits down on the bed across from him. Her eyes are angry and she just stares at him. She holds her hand out again, and he's about to hand over the phone so she can read her text messages.

But then a beeping fills the room, loud and constant and he smiles as Kate drops her head and mutters the F-word. He tells her that that's a bad word to say, but she doesn't seem to listen. She says it's the fire alarm and for him to go into the living room and wait with Braden, Tyler and Brooklyn. He listens and follows her back downstairs. He goes to the living room and Kate goes the kitchen.

He hears her mumble and swear as she takes care of whatever made the fire alarm go off. Some smoke is coming out of the kitchen. He hears metal clank against metal in the kitchen and Kate says the F-word again. Brooklyn asks what's going on. Tyler tells her it's no big deal and that Kate is just a bad cook. He didn't even know Kate had started supper, but now, he's kinda glad she did. It's making all this even funnier.

Kate comes out of the kitchen and walks into the hallway. She's holding a towel to dry the dishes. She stands in the hallway under the fire alarm that's still beeping and starts waving the towel in the air. He takes pictures of her because she looks really funny, standing there with her hair in a big mess, standing on her toes and waving the towel above her head to get rid of the smoke.

Eventually, the fire alarm stops beeping and Kate lets her arm fall back down. She takes a deep breath and leans back against the wall. There's still some smoke in the air. Kate waves some of it away with the towel quickly and it disappears. Brooklyn asks, again, what's going on, and Tyler tells her that Kate burned their supper. Kate nods and tells Brooke that Tyler's right.

"And, uh," says Kate, walking towards them, "those words I said in there, don't repeat them and _don'_t tell your mothers about them, okay?" she asks. They all nod. He only agrees, though, because this was all really funny and he has a feeling that if he tells his Mom about Kate using the F-word, the story of everything else that happened today will come out and he'll be punished for it.

"If you burned supper, Miss Kate, what are we gonna eat?" asks Brooke. She's rocking on her toes again like she always does when she's nervous. His Mom calls it a 'nervous habit' when she's talking to Sam about it. His Mom's a nurse, so Sam always asks his Mom for advice about things like that. His Mom says that Brooke's rocking is normal and that she'll probably get over it, and if not, it's okay anyway. "We have to eat supper."

"We will eat supper," says Kate. She holds her hand out to him again, wanting him to give her back the phone. "As soon as Brody gives me my phone back, I'm going to order us a pizza for supper. Sound good?" she asks. They all nod, and he gives her the phone back so she can order the food. "And then," she mumbles, "I'll have to deal with the fallout of all of this."

He watches as she walks away and into the kitchen. So do the others. And when he hears Kate start talking to the pizza place guy, he turns to his twin and holds out his hand. Braden slaps it with his in a high five. And then Tyler gives him a high five and Braden gives Brooke a high five and it keeps going like that until Brooke slaps her small hand against his.

"You're good, Brody," she says. "That was _really _funny!"

He smiles down at her. "Glad you liked it, Brookie," he tells her. "So, you want to keep helping us, right? 'Cause I have a really good idea for tonight."

Her smile is wide and happy and she nods excitedly.

* * *

**Once again, thanks to my beta la z boy and everybody reading this.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Tyler Morgan.**

* * *

They're going to eat plain old pepperoni pizza for supper. He tried to convince Kate to get olives on it, but she said no. Brooke doesn't like olives, apparently, and the pizza had to be something everyone would like. He suggested mushrooms, but Brody, as it turns out, doesn't like those, either. And Braden refuses to eat bacon because it's too fatty, which made even Kate laugh, but she still denied his request to put _something _on the pizza.

She has the pizza delivered, and tells them to watch TV while she cleans up the mess her failed attempt at cooking dinner made. He walks into the living room, following his little sister, Braden and Brody. From the kitchen, he hears Kate running water to do the dishes, and it almost masks the fact that she's mumbling swear words to herself, but it doesn't. That much makes him smile.

Braden and Brody take a seat on either end of the couch, leaning over the armrests. They each groan as the opening song of _Littlest Pet Shop _begins to play. Brooke takes a seat in the middle of the couch, and reaches for the remote before either one of the twins can grab it. She bounces up and down on the couch cushion and begins singing along, and he rolls his eyes at how immature and girly Brooke is. It's annoying.

He takes a seat in the big, comfy chair that's close to the couch and pulls his iPod out of his pocket. He puts his headphones on his head because they make it impossible to hear the TV, and he doesn't want to listen to the annoying TV shows his little sister likes. They're stupid. And he starts playing his favorite game on his iPod. It's called _Ninja, _and you have to make the ninja jump without hitting the obstacles. It's harder than it sounds.

He taps the screen repeatedly, making the ninja jump between colored blocks. His high score is 27, and he wants to reach 30 today. His Mom hasn't even gotten past 9 yet. And his Dad can't even get past the first block. They say this 'new technology' is meant for kids, not for adults. He wonders, as his ninja crashes at 26, if Kate would be any good. Probably not. But he'll still make her try later.

Brody's the one that pulls his headphones off. Brody's hand wraps around one of the ear pieces and pulls, making it snap back against his ear. It hurts, and he looks away from his iPod to glare at Brody. But he pulls his headphones off, anyway, his ninja having already died. Brody obviously wants his attention, he figures, and now Braden is standing right next to the chair, too.

He shifts in the seat so his back is pressed against one of the armrests. His headphones hang around his neck and he stuffs his iPod into his pocket. Brody climbs onto the chair, throwing his legs over the armrest and getting comfortable. Braden leans on his elbows, telling Brody that it's disrespectful to sit like that on other people's furniture. Brody doesn't care. He never does. That's Braden and Brody for you.

"What?" he asks the twins. Brooke, from the couch, turns towards him and shushes him loudly, pointing to the TV as though _Littlest Pet Shop _is actual meaningful and serious and important. He lowers his voice anyway. "What?" he repeats. Brody leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and Braden smiles.

"We brought the frog home," says Braden, and Brody nods to confirm. "It's in my bug house. We put it upstairs in our room. Brody thinks we can use it to get Kate again tomorrow," he adds. His voice falls to a whisper as he finishes his sentence, eyes moving towards the kitchen for a second, like he wants to make sure Kate isn't listening. "He has this whole big plan."

He turns to Brody. "What's the plan? I want in on it," he tells the twins, feeling the desire to be mischievous pull a smile across his face. "And Brooke will, too. She likes doing this stuff, even though her TV shows are _lame_." He turns to look at his little sister, finds her looking back at him. She's glaring. He just sticks his tongue out at her and turns back to the twins. "So?"

Brody turns towards the kitchen. "I'll tell you tomorrow. The pizza will be here soon," he says, "and my plan is _big _and complicated. Only one question," he continues, turning back towards the kitchen as though expecting Kate to walk into the living room at any minute now, "did you bring your Penny Board?" he asks.

He smiles as Brody turns back towards him. Of course, Brody probably already knows that he _definitely _has his Penny Board with him. It fits into the big backpack his Mom bought him for school this year, and he almost never leaves home without it. He rides it to the bus stop every morning, and back home every afternoon. He brings it to soccer practice and rides it on the sidewalk near the field when he gets there early. Sometimes, he even lets Brody ride it. Braden doesn't want to.

"Of course I did," he answers. "It's in my bag." He pushes himself up in the chair and grabs his bag from where he left it earlier, leaning against the chair. Quickly, he pulls down the zipper of the bag's main pouch, revealing the bright, lime green of his Penny Board before he quickly zips the bag back up, seeing Brody smiling down at the closed bag. He knows that smile. Brody has a plan, a _good_ plan.

And then, the doorbell rings and Kate comes running into the living room, turning to them and smiling. Her hands are still wet and she has burnt, crispy cheese on her shirt. Her hair is all messy from running around the apartment. She looks like a mess. And from where he's sitting, he can see the pizza delivery man look at her like she's crazy. It makes him laugh softly.

Kate calls them all to the table, and they all get up to eat pizza.

* * *

After dinner, Kate suggests that they watch a movie before bed. She takes the big chair that he likes, and Brooke sits down with her, cuddling against Kate like she cuddles with their Mom. He sees Kate smile because of it. That leaves him on the couch with Braden and Brody, the twins taking one end of the sofa, him leaning over the opposite armrest as Kate tries to find a movie on the Smart TV.

She scrolls through lists of movies, most of them animated, some of them not. She hovers over the titles and covers of her favorites and asks them what they think. She says it's their choice. He doesn't really care what they watch. He's playing _Ninja _again, anyway, still determined to break his high score before the day ends. Braden doesn't seem to care, either. That, or he likes all movies. He's pretty sure it's the second option.

It's Brody and Brooke that can't agree on anything to watch. Right after Braden tells Kate that he would watch that movie or this movie because it looks good, and he hums his own agreement, because he doesn't really care, either Brody or Brooke throw in their opinion. Either Brody says it sounds lame or Brooke says it sounds scary or Brody says that it sounds _way _too girly, and because there's more boys than girls, that's not fair. Every time, it makes Kate huff or groan.

Eventually, Kate's hovering over a movie they all seem to agree on. Well, he doesn't really pay attention, just tells her it sounds fine. Braden says it sounds _so cool_, and that he loved the first one. Brody says he _loves _dragons. He says that it's the best that dragons can breathe fire or spit out rock. The twins also say that they loved the first movie and never got to see the second one. Even Brooke seems to agree, saying that she loves Toothless, because he's _so cute, like a puppy._

They end up watching _How to Train your Dragon 2. _Kate turns it on after giving her own little speech about why she finds dragons cool. Braden ends up asking her if she's ever seen the movie before. She says she has and it's really good. She also says that Rick is a big man child who loves animated movies and dragons and especially things that mix the two. That makes them all laugh.

The movie starts with a race. Snotlout and Fishlegs are fighting for Ruffnut. Brody says that _he _thinks Ruffnut would make the best girlfriend because she's pretty _and _she likes boy things. Braden says he would rather date Astrid because she's pretty, likes boy things and she's smart. Kate says that none of them should be dating at their age, anyway, because they're too young. He just thinks all the names sound funny.

That's when Brody mentions his girlfriend. Brody is dating a girl in his class named Emma. She's sweet and girly and nothing like Ruffnut and Astrid. She's actually a lot more like Brooke. But Emma's pretty and that's why Brody likes her. He, himself, has a girlfriend, too. Her name is Joss and she's actually really cool. She's pretty and she plays on their soccer team and she loves to skateboard. But he doesn't want to tell Kate about Joss.

Brooke says she would date a guy like Hiccup when she's older. She says he's sweet and smart and cute. Kate says that that's some of the reasons she likes Rick, because he's sweet and smart and cute. She says they can't tell Rick that she said he was cute, though, because Rick would never let her live it down. He just rolls his eyes at that. He always thought cops were cool and tough, but sometimes, Kate sounds like a sap.

They stay quiet while they watch the movie. Eventually, he puts his iPod back in his pocket, when Eret Son of Eret shows up and kidnaps Hiccup and Toothless and Astrid and Stormfly. Eret's cool. He's tall and strong and he works hard. His tattoos are cool, too, across his chin like a fancy, blue beard. And the people that work for Eret are funny, chasing after Stormfly and Toothless and so confused by Hiccup's behavior. He likes Astrid in that scene, too, because she's so tough and smart, but she's _so _confused.

He likes it when Valka shows up, too. He likes the funny mask she wears and the way she controls the dragons with her staff. He likes the room full of dragons, Brooke "awwww's" at the baby one and Brody calls the Bewilderbeast cool. And Cloudjumper is fun to watch with Valka and with Toothless and Hiccup. He actually _likes _the movie, surprisingly, and finds himself wondering what will happen.

Brooke squeals and cries when Stoick dies. Kate holds her and tells her it will all be okay because it's just a movie. He rolls his eyes at his sister. Sure, he liked Stoick, but he's not going to _cry _because a person in a movie dies. Besides, it's not like Hiccup or Toothless died. Stoick is cool. yeah, and big and strong, but he's not the _main _character, and he was trying to protect Hiccup. It's actually kinda sweet, he thinks. And sappy.

Braden and Brody call the kiss at the end gross. He thinks Gobber is funny, covering the kid's eyes while Hiccup and Astrid kiss. Brooke says the kiss is sweet. She says that Hiccup and Astrid are going to get married and have really cute babies, just like Kate and Rick. And that makes Kate cough and her cheeks turn bright pink and she tells Brooke to watch the end of the movie.

Brooke does listen, but he knows his sister. She's curious, as their Mom puts it, sometimes _too_ curious. And when she wants to know something, she doesn't give up. And that's how he knew Brooke would annoy Kate by continuing with questions about Kate and Rick and babies. Of course, he didn't really mind. Though talking about Rick made Kate all sappy and gross, talking about babies made her nervous and shy and she would stumble over her words, trying to explain to Brooke that having a baby is a _big _decision and she and Rick haven't decided yet.

He likes it a little less when Kate says it's time for them all to get ready for bed.

* * *

Kate goes to get Braden and Brody ready for bed first, because the twins' bed is already made. He sits on the couch playing _Ninja _while they wait, but he can't help but think about what Braden and Brody told him earlier. The frog is in their room. Where in the room, he doesn't know, but he sure hopes they were smart enough to hide it somewhere. If Kate sees the frog, she won't be happy.

He's glad when Kate comes back downstairs. She's not smiling. She looks a _little _annoyed, but he heard Braden and Brody arguing about bedtime on Saturday's, and he guesses that's why. If she had seen the frog, she would be mad at the twins, and probably at him and Brooke, and she doesn't look mad. She would also probably have the frog with her, rather than leaving it with Braden and Brody, and she's definitely _not_ holding a frog.

She smiles when she gets into the living room, like she's trying to hide that she's really not all that happy. Brooke smiles back at her and tells Kate that she was waiting. Brooke asks where they're going to sleep, because there's no other empty bedrooms. Kate tells them that they're going to sleep on the living room floor, just like she did earlier when she showed them where to leave their bags.

Brooke whines about sleeping on the floor. He puts his headphones on so he can't hear her, and instead listens to the background music of his game. He hates when Brooke whines, especially about stupid things like sleeping on the floor. He sleeps on the floor all the time when he has sleepovers with his friends and it's actually pretty comfy. His little sister is just being stupid, in his opinion, like always.

Kate must eventually get Brooke to accept the sleeping arrangements, because she sits on the edge of the couch, next to his legs. He taps the screen of his iPod a couple more times, making his ninja jump, and then it dies at 23. He huffs, because Kate was distracting him and _that's _why he didn't beat his high score, but he still looks up at Kate, pulling his headphones off his ears so he can listen to what she has to say.

"We need to move the coffee table," she begins, "so you and your sister have more room on the floor. Can you help me?" She smiles at him, and points to the coffee table with her left hand. There's her empty coffee cup still sitting on it, and Brooke's half-full cup of milk that Kate got for his sister about halfway through the movie. "I'll put the cups in the kitchen, and then we can put the coffee table over there," she explains and she points to the side of the room, right under a window.

He nods. Kate smiles wider and thanks him before standing up. She grabs the two cups from the coffee table and walks into the kitchen. He hears her dump the milk into the sink, and the clink of her mug being put on the counter. Kate comes back into the living room and tells Brooke to go to the bathroom, brush her teeth and change into her pyjamas while she helps him move the coffee table. Brooke grabs her backpack and skips out of the room.

Kate grabs one end of the coffee table and he grabs the other, curling his fingers around the edge. It's not really that heavy, actually, and with Kate lifting half of it, he can lift his end easily. Kate walks backwards and he follows her, holding up the table, until they get to the end of the room. Kate puts her end of the table down and he does the same with his end. She pushes the table against the wall with her knee, and it squeaks against the floor.

Brooke comes out of the bathroom, still holding her backpack, wearing her _Frozen _nightgown. It's blue with Elsa and Anna on the front of it. She has another one just like it at home but pink, and other pyjamas with the characters from _Frozen_ on them. He rolls his eyes. His little sister is _way _too obsessed with _Frozen. _It's really annoying when they're at home. Her favorite song is 'Let It Go' and she watches the movie all the time. He hates it.

Kate tells him to go and get changed, too. He grabs his backpack from where it's still leaning against the big chair and walks towards the bathroom. There's just a sink and a toilet in it, and the room is actually pretty small. He goes to the bathroom, flushes the toilet and washes his hands before brushing his teeth. And then he pulls off his clothes and puts on the blue, plaid pyjamas his Mom packed for him because she says that sleeping in just your boxers at somebody else's house is disrespectful.

When he leaves the bathroom, Kate is pulling a bunch of blankets and a couple pillows out of a closet. He throws his backpack over his shoulder and walks past her, into the living room where Brooke is now lying down on the couch. He takes a seat near his sister's feet and waits for Kate to come in.

Her arms are full of pillows and blankets when she comes into the living room. She bumps into one of the walls of the doorframe and one of the big, fluffy pillows fall to the floor. He laughs softly as she mumbles something to herself and kicks the pillow ahead of her, not bothering to bend down to pick the pillow up. She kicks it until she gets to the big, wide living room rug and it refuses to move any more.

Kate ends up dropping the blankets and the other pillow onto the couch next to him, and then she bends down to grab the other pillow. She hands one pillow to him and one to Brooke, and then hands each of them a folded up pillowcase. She asks them to put the pillows in the pillowcases while she sets up their bed on the floor. He gets his in pretty quick, but Brooke doesn't know how, so he does hers, too.

Kate spreads the biggest blanket over the rug. She has two other, smaller blankets still sitting on the couch. One is a dark, dark grey and the other is a cream color that matches the pillow cases. She tells them that they will be their blankets, to cover them so they don't get cold. She grabs the pillows from them and puts them both at one end of the blanket, at the end closest to the couch, and holds the blankets out for them to choose which one they want. He chooses the grey one.

Kate tells them both to lay down on the floor. He takes the side of the blanket closest to the door, placing his backpack at the corner of the couch. His iPod is in it, so he doesn't want it to go far. Brooke takes the other half of the blanket. They both lay down on their backs at first, and then he turns onto his side, towards his sister and away from the door. Brooke turns to look at him and smiles.

"So, is there anything else you guys need? You can just ask, you know," says Kate. She sounds a little nervous. He shakes his head to tell her there's nothing he needs. So does Brooke. Kate looks relieved. "Okay, then, I'll just be in my room watching TV or, uh, maybe talking to Rick. If you change your mind, come find me." She turns around and starts walking down the hall towards what he guesses is her bedroom.

Brooke turns to him. "Do I do it now?" she asks, pointing with her finger towards where Kate left. He smiles, glad and a little proud that she remembered, and nods his head yes. She smiles, "Okay," and then she pushes herself up into a sitting position. "Miss Kate!" she calls.

He hears Kate turn around and walk back towards them, even though he can barely see her. She comes to stand behind the couch's armrest and leans against it. "Yes, Brooke?" she asks. "Is there anything you need?" She smiles down at his sister.

"Yes," says Brooke. "I'm not used to sleeping away from home, Miss Kate, and I'm kinda scared. Can you lay down with me?" She pats the space on the blanket next to her. "Please," she adds, pushing her lip out in the pout that nobody, including their parents, are unable to say no to.

"Sure," says Kate. She grabs one of the small pillows off the couch and places it in the floor next the Brooke's pillow, and she lays down.

* * *

Kate falls asleep first. She's lying on her small little couch pillow with only a small corner of Brooke's cream blanket and she's fast asleep. She breathes through her mouth when she sleeps and barely makes a sound. Her hands are crossed over her chest and her eyes are closed and it's actually kind of weird to see her so…asleep, like there's nothing else in the world.

He always imagined cops as strong people, all the time. He actually never thought that cops slept at night, even though that's stupid because _obviously_ everyone has to sleep. But… Well, he doesn't really know _what_ he expected Kate to be like when his Mom told him they would be staying with a cop this weekend, but he really never pictured _this_. Because, right now, even though Kate usually spends her days catching bad guys, she looks _exhausted_ and innocent, like a child, and she fell asleep even before his seven year old sister, and Brooke usually falls asleep fast.

He slowly climbs off the blanket and onto the armchair, which is the piece of furniture in the living room farthest away from Kate. Brooke rolls over and onto her side slowly, carefully letting the cream colored blanket go, so it doesn't pull on Kate and wake her up. She crawls over towards his side of the blanket before standing up. She comes to sit on the chair with him. The chair is big enough so they don't touch.

"What do we do?" she whispers, and she points to where Kate is sleeping on the floor. Kate shifts slightly, rocking back and forth slowly before rolling over and onto her side, away from them. He puts his finger to his lips to tell Brooke to be quiet and waits for Kate to let out a big, tired and comfortable breath before turning back to his little sister, satisfied that Kate is still asleep.

"Well, I'll get the ice cubes and the whipped cream. Can you get my iPod out of my bag?" he asks, and Brooklyn nods really quickly. He doesn't usually let her touch his iPod, but he knows that if he sends her to get the whipped cream or the ice, she'll make too much noise and they'll wake Kate up before they can go through with the plan. "Okay," he says, "and then you just sit here and wait for me to come back." She nods.

He climbs out of the chair and walks around the couch, taking the long way so he doesn't step on Kate, and walks right into the kitchen. He makes sure to keep his footsteps nice and soft, so they don't make too much noise on the floor. First, he opens the fridge. The can of whipped cream is in the door, it's bright red label familiar. He grabs the can and shakes it to see how much is left. There's a lot left and he smiles, because the more whipped cream, the better. He sets the can on the counter.

He pulls open the drawer at the bottom of the fridge, feeling the cold come out of it immediately. Most of the freezer drawer is filled with big dishes either with lids on them or covered in tin foil. There's meat, too, on one side. The ice cubes are on the other. He grabs the tray, his fingers touching the cold glass of one of the big dishes, and he makes a hissing sound because it's so cold. He pushes the drawer closed with his foot before resting the tray of ice cubes on the counter, next to the whipped cream.

He doesn't have time to look for pie tins. Instead, he finds a small dessert plate sitting in the dish drying tray and he grabs that. He grabs the whipped cream can, too, and goes to one of the chairs on the other side of the counter. He sits down on one of the tall chairs and pops the cap off the can of whipped cream, but not too loudly. His Dad doesn't like it when he eats too much whipped cream, but he gets a lot of practice when he's home alone with his Mom, and it's easy for him to get the whipped cream on the plate in swirls.

He leaves the plate on the counter when he gets off the chair and goes back into the main part of the kitchen. He grabs the tray of ice cubes, which is a little less cold now, and grabs a plastic cup from the dish drying tray that he recognizes as Brooke's old cup of milk. It's clean now, though, so he grabs it and goes back to the other part of the counter, pushes himself back up onto a chair.

He twists the plastic tray in his hand, makes a single ice cube pop from the tray. He takes it between his fingers and drops it into the plastic cup, watches as it circles the bottom of the glass, already beginning to melt. He pops one, two, three more ice cubes from the tray and drops them into the cup. They clink against each other, and one of them cracks. He smiles and grabs the cup.

When he gets back into the living room, Brooke is playing on his iPod. Well, she's not _actually _playing, she's just sliding her thumb back and forth, making the pages of apps switch over and over again. She looks up at him when he walks into the room, plate of whipped in one hand, cup of ice in the other. She smiles and puts his iPod down, his headphones sitting next to her.

"You got it all?" she asks, pointing with her finger to the items in his hands. She shifts in the chair so she's on her knees and bounces like she always does. "You did!" she answers her own question, smiling wide. "Can I do the cream, Tyler? I know you wanna do the music. And I don't want to do the pants, but can I _please _do the cream?"

He smiles and puts the plate and the cup on the chair in front of Brooke. "Yeah," he answers. "You can do the cream. You just have to make sure that you hold the plate upside down right over her face, okay? Even if the whipped cream falls off the plate, you can't move it, okay? That way, Kate will still hit her head on the plate."

Brooke nods. She grabs the plate in front of her and, balancing it carefully between her hands, hops off the chair. He grabs the cup of ice cubes and his iPod and headphones and goes over to the floor, too. Brooke sits down right next to Kate, where she was lying down earlier, and balances the plate between her legs. He walks around the couch to get to Kate's other side and sits down, crossing his legs.

He finds a song on his iPod first, going through his rock playlist to find the one with the loudest music. He's wearing his headphones so Brooke can't hear, and so the music doesn't wake Kate up yet. He wants to do this in a specific way, according to the plan that they came up with at school on Friday. He finds a song with a really loud guitar solo about halfway through, and rewinds the music until it gets to the beginning of the really loud part, and pauses it.

Kate is still sleeping. She's rolled onto her back again, and that's good, because it will make this easier. He grabs his headphones and stretches the headband, pulling it wide so it'll fit over Kate's head without pulling on her hair or ears. He brings the headphones up to her head and pulls them down around her head, places the ear pieces over her ears gently so it doesn't wake Kate up.

He points to the plate of whipped cream to tell Brooke to put it in place. She smiles, bounces once and grabs the edges of the plate with her hands. She starts by lifting it up and over Kate's face, holding the plate upside right, and then she slowly turns it around. Some of the whipped cream falls onto Kate's face, some of it falls onto her neck, but most of it is slowly sliding off the plate, and he knows it won't all fall off until Kate gets a faceful of it. He presses play on his iPod.

Kate reacts almost immediately, screaming loudly into the living room and bolting up right away. His fingers pull on the waistband of her black, stretchy pants and he slips all four of the ice cubes into the front of her pants. They make bulges and wet spots, some sliding down her legs and others staying in place, leaving a darkening wet spot in the fabric of her pants.

The funniest part is when Kate sits up all the way, so fast that she doesn't notice the plate that Brooke is holding, or anything else. Her hands come up to her ears, blocked by the headphones, and her face hits the plate, squishes the whipped cream until her forehead hits the plate's edge and Kate leans back, groaning, and Brooke puts the plate back on the floor. Kate lets go of the headphones and brings her hand to her face.

He can't stop laughing. He's laughing so hard his stomach hurts and he's holding it with his arms, bending over until his forehead is almost touching the floor. Brooke is laughing, too. He can't see her because there's tears in his eyes from his laughing, but he can hear her laughing loudly. He wipes the tears out of his eyes as Brooke rolls onto her back, pulling her knees up against her, still laughing. That only makes him laugh louder.

Kate is sitting up again. Her face is still covered in whipped cream, a handprint on her forehead. Her eyes are closed. She's managed to get the headphones off her ears, but the music is a different, quieter song now, anyway, and he manages to reach over the pause it. Kate groans and massages her forehead with her fingers, like his Mom does when she has a headache, and he wonders if hitting her head on the plate hurt that much.

She looks really, really funny, with a handprint on her face and the rest of her face all white, and now she's wiggling around in the blankets a little and making hissing sounds. He thinks it's because of the ice cubes, which have melted a little more now. They make smaller bumps in her pants, one up at the top of her leg, another close to her knee. She mumbles something about it being cold, _so cold. _

She wipes her face with her hand, spreading the whipped cream and getting even more on her hand. And she jumps up and off the floor. She shakes her leg, sorta like a dog, to get the ice cube out of her pant leg. The one that was close to her knee falls onto the floor, he grabs it and puts it into the cup, still laughing as Kate begins to shake her other leg. Another ice cube falls onto the floor.

The other two ice cubes are too high in her pants to fall when she shakes. She tries, though. She jumps around and sorta dances and yelps when the ice keeps melting. He laughs and laughs and so does Brooke because Kate looks so funny. He also manages to grab his iPod and take a video of Kate's little dance, with her face full of whipped cream, to show Braden and Brody tomorrow morning. He wonders if Kate's screaming woke them up, though.

Eventually, the ice cubes melt completely, and Kate stops jumping and dancing. He stops the video and watches as she feels her forehead, her face still covered in whipped cream, and then the wet streaks that the ice left in her pants. She winces and pulls the wet clothes away from her leg, lets it snap back into place and makes a hissing sound. He's not sure if it's because of the slap of her pants on her leg or because of the cold.

She wipes the whipped cream off her face with her shirt. Her tank top is tight, though, and when she pulls it up to wipe her face, it shows her stomach. She drops the shirt back into place and it's covered in white cream, but her face is clean. Well, mostly. There's still a little white in the edge of her hair, but he decides not to tell her. She's probably going to look in the mirror soon, anyway, and this is funnier.

"Okay," says Kate, pointing first to him and then to his sister. They're both still laughing, but not as loudly anymore. "I know that you two obviously found this _hilarious_, but I did _not _find this funny," she continues, like it's not totally obvious that she finds this totally lame, even though it really is absolutely hilarious.

"We're sorry, Miss Kate," says Brooke, but the fact that she's still laughing doesn't make her sound sorry _at all. _"But you just fell asleep and we couldn't help it. We just wanted to be funny," she explains, and the fact that she's _still _laughing makes _that _sound a little more believable. Brooke grabs the cream blanket and brings one corner of it to her face, buries her face in it and keeps laughing, wiping at her eyes with the blanket.

"Yeah, Kate," he adds for Brooke, forcing the laughter out of his voice. "We couldn't sleep and just wanted to get a laugh out of something. We didn't mean to upset you." He looks down at the ground and then back up at Kate. She's massaging her head again, rubbing the corner of her forehead with her thumb like it really hurts. "And we really didn't mean to hurt your head," he adds, and he actually means that part. He didn't think it would hurt her.

"I know you didn't mean to hurt me," says Kate, and she drops her hand from her head and smiles down at him. "Just, you have to be careful, especially with heads. This will just cause a bruise, but hitting someone on the head can cause a lot of damage, okay?" He nods. "But, I can see why this would be funny for you. I used to play pranks on my babysitters, too."

He smiles. "You did?" he asks, and she nods, a smile coming across her own face. He gets onto his knees and then stands up. Brooke isn't laughing anymore. She actually, suddenly looks really tired, and he's not laughing either. "What did you do to them?" he asks Kate.

She narrows her eyes at him. "I'm not giving you any ideas," she tells him, and he feels his cheeks get a little hot as he looks down at the floor and nods. "But, my point is that I get it. It's funny. Just, can we not do _that _again, please? Rick doesn't really like it when people get me full of bumps and bruises," she says.

"I'm not scared of Rick. He's just a writer," he tells her and he crosses his arms over his chest.

"You don't have to be scared of Rick," says Kate. "You don't have to be scared of anyone. I'm not trying to threaten you, Tyler," she promises him. "I just want you to know that nobody appreciates getting...pranked or injured or anything like that, okay?"

"Okay," he says, and he smiles up at her.

"Okay. So, you're sister's asleep," she replies, pointing down to where Brooke is, sure enough, asleep, "so, can I trust you to lay down, get some sleep? I'll be in my room if you need anything." She points to the hall, down to where her bedroom is, and then looks back at him. He nods, and she smiles and wishes him a good night before walking down the hall towards her bedroom.

He lays down and pulls the dark grey blanket on top of him. Really, Kate might be the nicest babysitter he's ever had. But being better than everyone else he didn't like doesn't mean he likes her. It just means he dislikes her less. And that means that, no matter what she says, they'll keep pranking her.

And they had _big _plans for tomorrow.

* * *

**Thank you, again, to la z boy. Also, for those commenting on how horrible the kids are in this story, I will admit that this is an exaggerated version of how children would act, but I can speak from experience when saying that they can be _very _rambunctious.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Katherine Beckett.**

* * *

She's not sure what it is exactly that wakes her up, but her brain isn't processing the steady, familiar beep of her phone alarm, nor the ringtone she hears way too often. Her breathing is even, telling her she didn't have a nightmare, and she's simply lying on her back, head cushioned by her pillow, so she definitely didn't smack herself or anything like _that_. But her eyes are wide open and her muscles are all tense, and she's most certainly awake.

It takes a second for her body and mind to connect, and when they do, each of her nerve endings are screaming at her the very reason for which she's awake. It's cold, really cold, and though she's only been conscious for a few seconds, she's shivering, her muscles quivering from the cold. And it's wet, her shirt sticking to her stomach and chest, the mattress surrounding her soaking wet. And that can't be good.

The next thing her mind processes is the sound her ears seem to catch. Children's laughter, familiar now, after spending a day with Tyler, Brooke, Braden and Brody. Distinct laughs, the high-pitched giggle that belongs to Brooke, the near-silent chuckles that belong to Braden and render him tearful. Brooklyn sounds the closest, her laughter ringing too close to her ear, loud to her sleepy brain.

And finally, her body seems to become aware of the fact that her legs aren't warm. And they're not cold, either, not like her upper-body, not soaked by freezing water that makes her shiver. No, her legs are just _not warm, _not enveloped by the cotton of the pyjama pants she threw on last night after the ice incident. They're not cold, not wet, but they're also not hidden.

Her eyes finally become unblurred and focus on what's around her. Sure enough, Brooke is closest to her, leaning over the nightstand next to her bed. Brody is kneeling on the bed, straddling her calves, and Braden is kneeling next to him. Tyler is standing near Brody, his hand on the mattress, fingers brushing against her thigh, leaning over, towards her, as he laughs at her.

She's really not sure what to do at this point. She's surrounded by kids, lying on a soaking wet mattress with a soaking wet shirt and pants down and around her ankles. She can't really move, her body all but glued to the mattress, and though her instinct is to curl up into a ball, for some reason her foggy mind can't figure out this early in the morning, she can't do that, either, because Brody is sitting on her legs.

Really, this is one position she never imagined being in. Sure, when she pictured eventually having children with Castle, she imagined there would be embarrassing moments, perhaps being walked in on by their children, engaged in things she wouldn't be ready to explain, or a well executed April Fool's joke played on her by a team of Castle and their hypothetical son, but never _this._

She never pictured herself babysitting in the first place, but even after Castle planned this weekend he affectionately named _Babysitting 101, _and her mind began spinning stories and ideas of what monster children could do, _this _had never come to mind. She had never pictured lying awake in her bed, soaking wet with ice cold water, pants around her ankles, motions restricted by the child on her legs, unsure of what to do.

And she feels like an idiot, a complete idiot for being frozen in place _now, _of all times. Because Kate Beckett prides herself on her ability to think fast and to get herself out of sticky situations. She's been held at gunpoint, dragged and drugged, and she still managed to react fast enough to catch her attackers off guard and get the upper hand in the situation. And yet here she is, awake and holding all her faculties, and she can't outsmart a group of four children.

They're still laughing, and the water is seeping into the mattress, pulling her with it, making her sink deeper into the bed. The shirt clings to her chest, tight around her breasts, and she kinda wishes she had worn something under her sleeping shirt last night, because her nipples are growing stiff from the cold, and the flimsy material of her old shirt is doing absolutely nothing to conceal that fact.

Her legs are growing cold now, the water traveling downwards in the mattress, down the length of her legs. And though it only dampens her now bare skin slightly, the cold seems to radiate from the mattress and surrounds her bare limbs, making the muscles of her legs quiver like the rest of her. Her feet tense and lock, and her calves begin to ache, and she realizes they've been tense this entire time.

She eventually gains the presence of mind to sit, her still foggy brain reminding her that, though Brody has restricted her legs, she still has complete control of her upper body. And, even without that thought, she would have sat up because her back was freezing and instinct was telling her to get as far away from the wet mattress as possible, and in her current position, the only way to do that is to sit up.

Her shirt is so wet that it drips, some of the water rolling down her back in small droplets, others falling from the shirt's hem and onto the mattress, or onto the curve of her butt, soaking into the slightly damp fabric of her black cotton panties. Silently, she thanks God that she's wearing what can best be described as granny panties, black and big and covering more than her usual thong would, and that, in the craziest of ways, is diminishing her embarrassment more than anything else actually can.

The shirt is big, faded and oversized, the fabric of it old and worn and almost see through in some places. But it's also stretched and she easily pulls it down over her butt and out over her knees to hide her mostly bare lower body. It would probably be more logical to just move Brody, because she knows she's strong enough to do so, and pull up her pants, but her mind is still mush and fogged with sleep.

Brody is still straddling her legs, laughing his head off at the look on her face. He leans forward as he laughs, settling his weight on his arms, resting his hands on her knees. His fingers push the hem of her shirt up slightly, and though she's worn things that revealed much more skin than the slight elevation of her shirt's hem does, she finds herself pulling the shirt back down and holding it in place, unsure of what else to do. She feels like she should say something, anything to vocalize her feelings, but the combination of shock and a hazy mind make it all but impossible.

So she sits there and waits for the children to get over how funny they seem to find this, for the children to stop laughing their heads off and let her go. She tries to keep herself calm, too, telling herself that it's just water and Castle can definitely afford a new mattress to replace this now ruined one. And they're just kids, and they're having fun watching her sit here, cold and stunned and shivering and wet, so she'll let them have their fun.

Eventually, they do calm down. Brooke is sitting on the floor, leaning back against the nightstand, arm flung over her stomach. Braden is lying on his side on the bed, curled up in the dry portion of the comforter. Tyler is practically doubled over the edge of the bed, one arm supporting his weight and one draped over his stomach as he struggles to catch his breath. Brody gets a few final laughs in before falling onto his side, freeing her legs.

She scrambles to her feet immediately, making her way between Tyler and Brooke. Her fingers wrap around the hem of her pants and pull them up just as she finally gets off the edge of the mattress, pulling the elastic waistband up and over her hips. Her hair is pulled back in a ponytail, the wet tips brushing the bare skin of her back, and her shirt still clings to her body, saturated with water, and her pants are loose, the waistband slightly damp, and she inexplicably feels even more idiotic _now _than she did before.

So she sighs, crosses her arms over her chest and clears her throat to get the children's attention. It takes the four a long time to actually look at her, most of them appearing exhausted, and her eyes dart to the digital clock on the nightstand quickly, the quick glance at the numbers telling her it's not even six yet, and yet they're all up. That pulls another sigh from her throat, and she looks back at the four kids.

"Okay," she says, "this," she motions to her herself, "is _not_ cool." That makes the kids chuckle, but they're still looking at her, so she keeps speaking. "Now, I want you guys to go into the living room and watch cartoons while I take a quick shower and get ready for the day. Then, we'll eat breakfast, you guys can get ready, and I have an outing planned for this morning, okay?"

The children nod, having already had their fun for the morning, and she waits for them all to get up and leave her bedroom before letting out another deep, defeated breath.

* * *

She grabs her outfit for today, a pair of dark jeans and a green t-shirt that she plans on wearing with an off-white cardigan and a pair of black heels. And then she walks into the bathroom, pulls her towel off the towel rod and replaces it with her clothing, smoothing down the shirt to make sure it doesn't wrinkle. She drops the towel onto the closed toilet lid.

She pulls of her soaked tank top first, the water that has seeped through the shirt leaving her bare stomach glistening in the harsh bathroom light. She runs her stomach over the distinct muscles of her abs, and despite the rather bad beginning she's had with these four kids, her mind flashes to the very reason she's doing this, to the conversation she shared with her husband, to the future they both want.

For a minute, she lets her mind wander to what that future would entail. She's never been the best at imagining things, at imaging a future filled with happiness and love and much less _children, _but today, she tries. She tries to picture herself standing in this very bathroom, fingers ghosting over her stomach just like they are today. But in her mind, it's not because her stomach is damp and glistening, but because her belly is just beginning to round out to accommodate their child.

And she traces the line of her abs, wonders for how long into her pregnancy they'll still be visible, realizes that, despite how much she loves being fit, and being able to show that off, she doesn't care. She shocked to find that she would actually, even though the thought seems too distant, be standing on their private beach in the Hamptons, her bikini clearly showing not the tight muscles of her abdomen, the swell of her stomach that has stretched around their baby.

And she wonders what Castle would say if he caught her like this, standing here, fantasizing about being pregnant without any prompting whatsoever. It's not like when he catches her wondering in the evening, after they spent the day doing paperwork and Ryan had helped clear them of their boredom with a story about Sarah Grace. And it's not like when he catches the red tint of her cheeks after her father or his mother casually mentions the possibility of grandchildren in the near future.

No, today, she's standing here alone, in their bathroom with only the sight of her own stomach to send her spiraling into the abyss of dreams and fantasies that come so often with thoughts of him and babies and children. These moments, where her mind would suddenly flash to an image of his hand on her belly, of a positive pregnancy test, of walking through Central Park with his hand in hers and their child on his shoulders, used to scare the living daylights out of her.

They started, really, after the shooting, during that year when she knew he loved her and he didn't know she knew. And, even though they had flashed oddly here and there, such as right after Maddie accused her of wanting 'Little Castle Babies', it had caught her off guard when he mentioned Alexis and her brain decided to create an image of a little girl with her hair and his eyes and her determination and his creativity, and she had pushed it away immediately, mostly out of fear that she would never even have the possibility of knowing that little girl.

And once they started dating, after that day when she showed up at his door, soaked from rain, desperate for a second chance, desperate for him, she pushed them back even more. And looking back now, it makes no sense, that she was more comfortable, albeit always uncomfortable, thinking of children with him before they were together than after. Now, when she looks back, she wants to laugh at how insecure she was in their future, how much she feared that they would fall apart if she let herself hope for a future, for forever, for a wedding and a baby.

It was only once they got engaged that she was comfortable with it. Well, comfortable enough with their relationship to imagine it, not so much around babies in general. It was Cosmo and the night they spent with him that truly opened her up to the idea, to the _reality _that they would be married, and after that, they would start a family, together, have a little girl with her hair and his eyes or a little boy with her eyes and his smile. That day and after that, she could picture it, it felt like a definite.

And then he went missing, and all her dreams went out the window, replaced by only the dream of finding him, alive and well and _hers. _And then they did find him and he had amnesia and she was more scared and insecure than ever and all she really wanted was to get back to where they were, happy and ready to get married. And then, finally, they did get married, did get their absolutely _perfect _day and the subject has been practically taboo ever since, not to be mentioned, never spoken of until that day on the couch.

And now here she is, imagining herself pregnant, imagining herself with a bulging belly that would stir with her child's movements, that would draw the sweetest of caresses from her husband's warm hand. She's standing here imagining her abs fading, replaced by a baby bump that would get her made fun of endlessly from the boys, that would turn her into a hormonal, emotional sap, that would have her writing lists of names and choosing shades of pink or blue or green like her life depends on it. And she _wants_ it.

She turns in the bathroom to face the mirror that hangs on the wall above the sink, planning on letting these fantasies consume her for one more minute before she actually hops into the shower and begins to get ready for the day like an actual productive member of society. She turns towards the mirror, towards the wall, her eyes drifting open even though she hadn't realized they were closed.

And that's when she sees it, the blotch that tears her fantasy apart, makes her mind go blank for a split second until all she can focus on is the blotch. Purple, bright purple spread across her forehead, dark and curved like the edge of the plate against which her head slammed last night. Round like a plate, a dark bruise across her forehead, and she's just thankful that it didn't cause a bump, because that would be much harder to explain than the splash of purple that she can hopefully cover with makeup rather easily.

It's when she turns in the mirror that she notices the other mark, darker, purple but just a little too red, a little too round just where her neck meets her skull, just below her ear. She remembers that spot, the very spot where the frog had got her neck in an attempt to catch…something, whatever it was. It looks like a hickey, like the marks Castle leaves on her neck and collarbone and thighs every now and then, the ones she covers with clothing, with a turtleneck from fall to spring, with a strategically placed scarf in the fall. And she knows from experience that _that _will be much harder to hide.

She can't really dwell on it now, though. The frog has already caught her neck, left a dark mark on her skin, pulled her blood to the surface and left a dark, reddish purple mark. And it's not the time of year for a turtleneck, so she'll probably have to grab a scarf to wrap loosely around her neck, and maybe she'll leave her hair down, but her options are limited and her time occupied by the four children in her living room.

* * *

The warm spray of water warms the final parts of her that shiver from the cold water the kids dumped on her earlier. It's hot and it coats her body, seeps into her hair, into silky strands and knots alike, rolls over her shoulders and down the plains of her stomach and back, down her legs until it pools at her feet. It's warm as it reaches the tiled floor, as it slips between her toes and in the valleys between her toes, pulled towards the drain by the tug of gravity.

It washes away all the cold, has her muscles loosening like they always do, her tense shoulders relaxing, her once quivering legs turning strong, her knees bending slightly, comfortably, her toes drifting over the curve of her calf. It's peaceful, the pounding of water against her back, the sensation of droplets rolling down her body, over the scar between her breasts, the sound of it hitting the tiled wall and the glass doors alike.

As usual, her eyes drift closed, and the music of the water is pulling a soft tune from her chest in the form of a quiet hum. She leans back, arches her back against the spray, tilts her head back so the water hits her hairline and rolls down the amber strands of her hair, sucks a breath in through her nose and releases it with the steady, musical hum that her throat creates.

She digs her nails gently into her head, scratches as she massages her scalp, as the water runs down her hair, drips onto the floor. It leaves her hair soaking wet, pulls it flat against her neck and back, has it making her back itch as it tickles her neck. She tilts her head to one side, lets the water wet the hair at her temple, feels it momentarily fill her ear, muffling the noise, until she tilts her head in the other direction, repeating the process, and the water clears from her ear, only to fill the other one.

Once all her hair is wet, soaked and dripping, she reaches blindly, with a skilled hand, for the shelf built into the shower, and the shampoo bottle she knows rests on it. Her fingers wrap around it, around the perfectly round bottle, and even though her eyes are still closed, eyelids glowing orange due to the light, she pops the cap open and squeezes a dollop of the soap into the cup formed by the palm of her hand.

She relaxes even more as she snaps the bottled closed and sets it back on the shelf, rubs her hands together, the friction forming bubbles between her fingers and warmth between her palms. She brings her sudsy hands up to her head, runs them down the hair that is pulled smooth over her head, leaving suds in their wake. And then she repeats the motions, this time digging her fingers into her hair, her nails into her scalp, massaging her head and rubbing the soap into her hair.

She's not sure what exactly makes her realize something's wrong, but she ends up opening her eyes. Maybe it's the slightly thinner consistency of her shampoo. Maybe it's the fact that, despite the way she intensely massages the shampoo into her hair, it doesn't become nearly as bubbly as it usually does. Maybe it's just her cop instincts telling her that something is up, but her eyes open, her head tilts forward and she knows instantly.

She curses quietly into the shower, the sound bouncing off the walls, fighting with the rhythmic fall of the water against the glass. The water pooled at her feet is not clear, nor tainted white or even slightly brown or anything like that. No, it's tainted a deep shade of green, like the trees of the northern forests, and the color shines in her eyes, makes her vision momentarily go red with anger before returning to normal as she pulls her hands away from her head to check the extent of the damage.

Her hands are green, green like the hulk, but smaller, daintier. The color has seeped into every crevice of her palm, between her fingers, staining her skin all the way from the heel of her palm to the translucence of her cuticles. Even her nails are green, looking like she put on too many layers of nail polish and then tried to remove them with the cheapest nail polish remover she could find and a cotton ball that was coming undone. And if her hands are _this _bad, she can only imagine what her hair looks like.

She rinses the remaining soapy bubbles out of her hair, feels them wash down her back, making her realize that her back is probably streaked green, too. She winces at that thought, and the mental image it tugs to the forefront of her brain, streaks of green down her spine, over the ridges of her shoulder blades. Streaks that will take forever to wash out, that will remain there, even ghostly pale, for days or even weeks, depending on what these kids used to dye her shampoo.

She makes sure all the water and green bubbles get down the drain, aiming the showerhead directly at them for a brief moment, thankful that the color that stained _her _didn't also stain the tiles. And then she slides the foggy glass door open and slips out to the shower, reaching for the fluffy white towel on the toilet before thinking better of it. She sighs and turns towards the mirror.

Thankfully, most of the dye steered clear of her front, her chest and stomach still her usual skin tone. There's a little green on top of her shoulders, but most of it is on her back, shoulders and neck. The skin right by her hairline is the darkest, much like when you get your hair colored professionally, and though the dye they used is certainly _not _professional hair dye, it has seeped into her hair rather well.

In her hair, it's darkest at her roots, where she massaged the shampoo into place, rubbed it in until it formed a lather as thick as the children's green shampoo concoction would allow. There, it's a dark green that has merged messily with the natural amber shade of her hair, turning it into a mucky looking brown, bordering on black, with streaks of green that has her wincing because it looks _horrible._

At her ends, where her hair is thinnest, it's much lighter. Because of how the light hits the quickly-drying thin ends of each strand, the color appears less forest green, almost black, and more like the green you see in preschool classes, more like grass than the northern trees. And between the roots and the ends, it's a slow fade, a gradual change from mucky green to the shade of grass, streaks of her natural hair color peeking through between the strands of green. It looks absolutely terrible.

She leans forward and wrings her dripping hair out over the sink, watching water, tainted green, disappear down the drain before turning around. Sure enough, her back is green, too, uneven streaks staining her skin like oil stains a mechanic's hands. It follows the curve of her spine, darkest in the valley created when she arches her back, lightest right below her shoulder blades, going from where it disappears beneath her hair down to her tailbone.

She turns around again, hands coming up to the mane of ugly green hair on her head. She smooths the strands down with her palm, wraps her hand around them at the back, pulling them into a makeshift ponytail. It still looks horrible, the top of her head a mix of green and mucky brown, and she realizes that's what she'll have to cover, rather than the back of her head. She shifts her hand, retrieves a hair elastic from a drawer in the bathroom vanity and throws her hair into a messy bun. It doesn't do much, but it doesn't look like she's trying to look all buttoned up and sophisticated with green hair.

She's about to get dressed and try to cover up what she can of the bruises and green when she hears the scream. High-pitched, loud and girly, echoing through the loft, off the walls and between the books that make up her bedroom walls. It slips under the closed, locked bathroom door, and perhaps by instinct, either simply human instinct or cop instinct, her hand is wrapped around the door's knob, the lock popping undone as she twists, and she's out the door.

It a second too late, really, that she realizes her _complete _lack of clothing, but now she hears tears and, really, she thinks Elizabeth and Sam would be a lot more angry with her if she left their child alone and in pain because she didn't want them to see her naked. Tyler is standing in the office, pointing to the door, and as she runs through her bedroom, towards the source of the cries, she reaches for a blanket from a chair in their room.

She slows her run to a quick walk once she passes Tyler, hears the shutter sound of his iPod's camera and winces at the fact that he now has a picture of her completely bare back, her hand pressing a blanket to her chest because her back is still wet and green and this morning has been a _mess. _For a minute, as she hears the familiar sound of the Apple camera app's shutter go off again, she debates just wrapping the blanket around her, but opts not to. It's white and _so _soft and after a long, tiring case, she absolutely loves curling up in her bed with her husband and this blanket, kept warm by both. And the green dye on her back would ruin it.

She walks out of the office and briskly into the living room, Tyler on her heels, and when she gets to the living room, easily seeing the floor over the back of the couch, part of her wants to scream, part of her wants to be swallowed whole by the floor and part of her wants to call Castle to tell him they're _never _having children. But instead, she takes a second to look at the group of three lying on the floor, all laughing their heads off at the fact that she's naked and _green _and, God, this is bad.

She doesn't want to react, doesn't want to blow up at them like she does when a suspect knowingly pushes her a tad too for or like she used to when Castle would let his jokes push her buttons a little too much. She forces herself to take a deep breath, stares at the four children for a second longer, realizes that Tyler is still snapping out of focus pictures of her back and butt, and leaves the room, walking back through the office, through the bedroom and locking herself in the bathroom all over again.

And then she lets her head fall back against the door, defeated, and lets out a stuttering sigh.

* * *

She manages to make herself look somewhat presentable. Her hair, still a swampy shade of green, is still up in a messy bun. Her clothing hides most of the dye on the rest of her body, leaving only her neck for people to see. She manages to hide the bruise on her forehead with a layer of concealer, and cakes so much makeup onto her neck that she feels like a Barbie doll, but it hides the hickey-like mark the frog left and the majority of the green.

After she's ready for the day, or as ready as she'll ever be, she lets herself out of the bathroom, glancing around the room quickly like she does when she's entering a suspect's home, and comes to the conclusion that the children aren't around. She walks into the room, goes to take a seat on the bed and then remembers that it's soaking wet, so she keeps walking and ends up taking a seat in the chair that's in the corner of his office, where she often sits and reads while he writes.

She slips her phone out of her pocket and finds a text message from him, sent forty-seven minutes ago. It's simply a link, the first one, and the second message reads in small but clear letters, _**Kids got the best of you, huh? :P**_, the sentence pulling yet another sigh from her throat. She taps the link, waits as her phone opens up Safari and finds the web page, and then winces at the headline that pops up.

_**Best-selling author Richard Castle's wife caught in compromising position, **_it reads in big letters, and though she knows with absolute certainty that gossip magazines such as this one make everything sound much, much worse than it actually is,she also knows that, though the headline makes you expect something way worse than what you actually get, it usually still describes the situation rather accurately.

She scrolls down the page and instantly hits the 'x' at the top of the page, turning the Safari page blank, and her breath is oddly fast, her cheeks burning with what she knows is a flush of anger. At who, she's not sure. At herself, for letting herself get put into that situation? At the kids for putting her in that situation? At the paparazzi who took the pictures that are now online and _embarrassing_? She's really not sure, all she knows is that she's angry, more so at the situation than anything, because pictures of her with childish signs on her butt are now circling the web.

She pulls up the Messages app again and easily taps her conversation with him, almost always at the top of the page because, of course, she talks to him more than anyone else. With a quick and accurate thumb, she quickly types out her reply: _**Seriously?**_, and then she pulls her feet up and onto the chair, presses her face against her knees and waits for his reply.

It comes rather quickly. _**I would be happy to spank you ;),**_ it reads, and she groans to herself, ready to reply when another text message comes it. _**I know how much you like it**_, says this one, and she's about to tell him that this is seriously _not _the time to bug her because she's already annoyed enough as it is, when two more pop up onto her phone screen. _**Okay. Sorry. Couldn't resist**_, reads the first one, followed by, _**But seriously, these kids are getting you good.**_

_**That's not the least of it, **_she sends as a reply, and before he can bother to ask her what else the children have done, she takes a picture of herself, a _Selfie, _as he so childishly calls them, and sends it to him. Of course, she told him last night, right before she actually went to bed, about the plate and music incident, telling him that she thought it would leave a bruise, and this morning she got confirmation that she was right, but this whole _green _issue is new, and she's somewhat glad that she doesn't have to see his initial reaction in person.

_**Oh, wow. They got you good indeed**_, comes his eventual reply, quickly followed by another text message. _**How'd they even do that? Don't tell me you fell for the whole dye in the shampoo thing, Kate.**_ She sighs, more at herself than at him, because, of course, she _did _get caught with that, and now she feels absolutely stupid about because she's a _detective _and she couldn't even realize her shampoo was dyed forest green before she had rubbed it into her hair so much that the color now coats almost every strand.

So, instead of admitting that, she sends him another message. _**We need a new mattress, too, btw, **_it reads. She waits a second for his reply before deciding that she might as well just explain now, before he gets the chance to ask how _that _happened and make some stupid joke about it. _**Kids dumped water on it**_, reads her next message, and she barely waits for his reply before stuffing her phone into her jeans' pocket and deciding that, as angry as she is, she actually _does _have to start the day and feed the children.

* * *

**Thank you to la z boy and everyone who has read this.**


	8. Chapter 7

**Braden Spencer.**

* * *

They eat cereal for breakfast, all sitting around the table. Kate still seems mad at them, but he can't really blame her. He would be mad, too, even though it was funny to prank her this morning. It was Brody's idea, but Brody's ideas are almost always funny. They also almost always get them in trouble, though, so he can't help but wonder why all Kate is doing about it is staying quiet.

He eats a bowl of Cheerios, along with Kate and Tyler. Brody and Brooklyn each have a bowl of Lucky Charms instead. The table is oddly quiet. Tyler is on his iPod and has been ever since Kate sent them to watch TV. Brooklyn is playing with the marshmallows in her cereal before each bite, not paying any attention to anyone else. And Kate is still mad, and doesn't speak. So he and Brody stay quiet, too.

Tyler, though, is brave enough to say something. "Hey, Kate," he speaks up, making her look at him. "Why so serious?" Tyler says it in a very intense way, but Kate doesn't react at all. "Oh, come on," Tyler says as if he's surprised. "The Joker? _The Dark Knight_? That's what your hair looks like!"

Kate doesn't say anything, just keeps staring angrily. Eventually, Tyler goes back to his cereal, the joke clearly not getting a good reaction from Kate.

Once they're done eating, Kate asks them all to put their plates on the counter by the sink so she can wash them. Brody groans at that, but does it anyway. He himself just silently obeys Kate, knowing that since she's already upset with them, the last thing he wants to do is make her even angrier. Tyler and Brooklyn listen, too, and by the time Brooklyn gets her bowl onto the counter, there's four bowls there, sitting in a messy pile.

Kate tells them to go back into the living room while she washes the dishes. She also tells Brooklyn that it's time to let them, the boys, choose their TV show. That makes Brooklyn whine, and though Brody is quick to run into the living room and pick up the remote, part of him wants to tell Brooklyn she can just keep watching _Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse_, even though he doesn't actually like the show. Brooklyn likes it and it makes her happy, and Brody's shows aren't any better, anyway.

Brody puts it on _Detentionaire_. Brooklyn whines about how she hates that show. Tyler still has his headphones on and doesn't seem to notice. He thinks it's one of the better shows that Brody likes, but doesn't say so. Kate, from the kitchen, tells Brooklyn that she's gotten to watch her shows ever since they got here, and now it's the boys' turn. Brody sticks his tongue out at Brooklyn. When Brody does that, their Mom usually tells him to stop because it's rude, but Kate can't see Brody, so he tells his twin to stop instead.

It doesn't take long for Kate to come back out of the kitchen. The water isn't running anymore, so he guesses that the dishes are all washed now. And Kate's hands are a little wet. She grabs the remote from the couch's armrest, where Brody left it, and switches off the TV. Brody tells her that's not fair, because his episode of _Detentionaire _was only, like, half done. Kate tells Brody she doesn't care. She's still mad.

She tells them all to go and get ready. Brody crosses his arms over his chest and tells Kate he doesn't want to get ready, saying that when _she _went to get ready, she ended up with green hair. Kate asks Brody whose fault that is, like his Mom does when she knows that something is their fault, but Brody points across the couch and says it's _his _fault, Braden's fault. He hops off the couch and runs up the stairs to get ready before Kate can react.

His Mom packed his bag for the weekend. She packed Brody's too, so he's not surprised to find that they have matching outfits. He hates matching with his brother. It used to get them made fun of at school. Well, more him than Brody. Brody was always considered cool because he likes cool things like video games and soccer. He was always the twin made fun of the most, because he likes _lame _things like reading and science. So, when they were younger and people would make fun of them because they watched, Brody would call him his _shadow_. The other kids would all laugh at that. He still gets called _Shadow _by some of them.

He takes off his blue pyjamas. He pulls his clothes for today out of the bottom of his bag, where it's under the clothes he wore yesterday, and then he stuffs the pyjamas back into the bag. He puts on his clean underwear first, and then his socks, then his pants. The jeans his Mom packed for him are just a little too long, and they reach the floor and he steps on them when he walks. He puts on the blue t-shirt with a monkey on the front of it, too.

He's walking out of the room when Brody is just coming up the stairs. His brother is smiling just a little too much, just like he does when he pulled off a prank, and he wonders what happened downstairs after he left. But he doesn't ask Brody, because part of him, the part of him that knows that making fun of Kate will only make her more upset, doesn't really want to know.

Brody walks into the bedroom as he walks into the upstairs bathroom, the one that Kate showed them last night after putting them to bed. He has a ziplock bag with his toothbrush in it in his hand, and he closes the door behind him and locks it so Brody won't come in. He brushes his teeth first, spits the foamy toothpaste into the sink and then rinses his mouth with water. Then he goes to the bathroom, washes his hands, and before leaving, fixes his hair a bit in the mirror.

He goes back downstairs and walks into the living room. Kate is standing there with Brooklyn, helping her put her hair in two braids. He takes a seat on the couch and doesn't bother to turn the TV back on. He just watches as Kate puts a tiny pink elastic around the tip of the first braid, and then quickly starts doing the other. To him, braids always look so hard to make, but Kate makes it look easy.

Brooklyn is wearing a skirt today, with leggings. The leggings are white and have lace on the bottom of them, and the skirt is purple, exactly like you get when you mix the same amount of red and blue together. She's wearing a white shirt with her skirt, and a purple sweater-y thingy that covers her shoulders. When Kate finishes the second braid, Brooklyn puts a purple headband with a big flower on it on her head, and asks Kate if she looks cute. Kate says she does. He thinks Brooklyn looks cuter than he does in his monkey shirt, _that's_ for sure.

Tyler comes out of the bathroom at the same time as Brody comes jumping down the stairs really, really loudly. Kate tells Brody to be a little quieter, but all that does is make Brody jump down each step and then stomp his feet so he's even louder. Kate rolls her eyes at him and mumbles something about why she even tries. Tyler is wearing his headphones around his neck now, and both the other boys plop down on the couch next to him. Brooklyn climbs onto the chair, and Kate sits on the armrest.

"Okay," says Kate, and even though he can tell she's still mad, she smiles a small smile, "as much as I didn't like the way my morning started, we do have plans for today." He nods, Brody groans and whispers that Kate's plans are probably _lame_, but he's pretty sure Kate doesn't hear Brody, because she doesn't say anything to him. Or, she could have just ignored him, he's not sure. "We are going to the New York Public Library," she tells them.

Brody groans real loud and leans towards him. "See? _Lame_," he says, and even though he's whispering, he says 'lame' almost like he's singing a song. He just shrugs in response, because he doesn't want to admit that he actually doesn't think it'll be lame. He likes the library, just like he likes to read and he likes science, and though he knows it probably _is _totally lame to Brody, to him, it sounds fun.

* * *

They leave Kate's apartment at around nine. She tells them to all bring their backpacks in case they're out for longer than just the morning, because if they're nice, she might take them out to lunch afterwards. That makes Brody smile his mischievous smile and Brooklyn starts asking Kate tons of questions which Kate doesn't seem to have an answer to. But when Kate tells Brooklyn that she'll probably bring them to a small cafe near the library where they make the _best _chocolate muffins, Brody's smile gets even bigger.

They walk down the hallway as a group. Kate waves hello to an old woman who is standing in the hall, picking up her mail. The old lady waves back and wishes Kate a good day. He looks back down the hall and realizes that the old lady is probably Kate's neighbor, and that might be how they know each other. The old lady smiles at him when he walks by her, though, so he waves, too, even though he doesn't know her. That makes the lady smile even more, and he remembers his Mom telling him that old people like kids.

They get to the elevator and Kate lets Brooklyn press the down arrow button. It lights up and then they all just wait until the elevator gets to their floor. It dings when the doors open, and Kate lets them all get on the elevator first. Brody pulls him into one of the corners, and while Kate presses the button for the main floor, he hears the zipper of his brother's backpack coming undone. And then he feels the plastic chain that he instantly recognizes as Brody's velcro handcuffs.

"Handcuff her to the bar," whispers his brother, and he nods, staring right ahead at Kate's back. As the elevator begins to move, she walks backwards towards the elevator's wall, wraps her fingers around the bar. "Don't worry, I'll take care of the rest." And then his brother walks away from him, towards the elevator's panel of buttons, and he's left standing there along with velcro handcuffs in his hands and an order in his mind.

He waits for about five seconds, and then Brody motions to Kate and he can't help but think, _now?_ But he inches closer to Kate, his back pressed against the very bar he has to cuff Kate to, and holds the velcro cuffs behind his back so she doesn't see them. When he gets close enough to her, he slowly undoes the velcro, trying to make sure it's not very loud and that she won't find out. Thankfully, Brooklyn is still talking non-stop, so Kate is focussed on that, and whatever sound he _does _make goes unnoticed.

Kate is paying so much attention to Brooklyn that she doesn't realize that he slowly turns around and dangles the cuffs above the bar, letting one velcro wristband slip beneath it, slipping the chain into the space between the bar and the elevator wall. Quickly, he manages to get one cuff around one of Kate's wrists, and then he reaches between her back and the bar to grab the other cuff. She's noticed now, and he has to work fast. He barely manages to get the second cuff around her wrist in time, and then he walks back to the corner, presses his back against the wall farthest from Kate.

"What the - ?" Kate says, surprised and annoyed.

He hears his brother laugh and looks up to see Brody push one of the buttons. It doesn't light up like the others would, and he wonders what that button does. It ends up making them stop on the next floor, and the doors slide open with a ding and Kate can't get the tight velcro undone, so they all stay on the elevator, Brooklyn giggling softly, Tyler watching Kate like he's wondering what will happen next. Brody presses every single button on the elevator control panel, and they light up like a Christmas tree, just like yesterday.

He hears Kate groan as the doors slide closed, and she pulls the plastic chain against the elevator's bar. He wonders if she could get free if she tried really hard. After all, she's a cop. She probably uses stronger, more secure metal cuffs all the time, and could probably get out of velcro ones easily if she wanted to. But then he remembers how mad she was this morning about her hair, and realizes that she wouldn't do anything just to make Brody think he got her, not now.

He watches as the doors open on the next floor, and Brody smiles and turns away from them as they slide closed. He watches as his brother walks towards Kate. Brody holds his hands out in front of him, fingers spread wide, and Kate presses herself back against the bar like she's actually _scared _of his brother. He thinks she might _actually _be scared by this point in the weekend. And he realizes she has a reason to be, because Brody reaches for the top of her pants, his fingers undoing the button, and then he pulls her jeans down to her knees, gently pushing them to the floor.

Kate gasps and he sees her try to cross her legs, but she can't because her jeans are too tight around her ankles. He remembers walking around with _his_ pants around his ankles when he was younger and how hard it was. He had to take tiny steps because his legs were practically stuck together and it was awkward and uncomfortable. He wonders if that's how Kate feels now.

"Nice underwear, Kate!" Brody exclaims.

But then his brother and Tyler and even Brooklyn start laughing their heads off, so he laughs, too. Because, as much as he sort of feels bad for Kate, it also is really funny that she's stuck in the elevator with her hands cuffed behind her back and her pants down around her ankles. Kate just groans, and when he opens his eyes as he takes a breath, he sees her rest her head back against the elevator wall.

They keep going down. The elevator stops and the doors open at every single floor, and every single time there's no one standing there, he sees Kate let out a big sigh. But then they get to a floor about halfway down and there's a _family _standing there, a woman, a man and their two kids, two little girls, and the woman gasps and tries to hide her girls' eyes, and he sees Kate smile almost desperately at the man, as though begging him to understand that this was not her choice. It makes Brody laugh louder, and Tyler and Brooklyn, so he laughs, too.

And they keep going down. Most of the floors are empty, and Kate keeps letting out big sighs whenever the doors open to no one in the hallway. A couple more times they open and there's a person there, but never another family. He's pretty sure Kate is happy about that, that she would rather have one person see her half naked than a group of four people, including two kids. No one gets on the elevator with them and no one tries to help Kate.

It's only when they get to the second floor that Brody undoes the cuffs around Kate's wrists. Instantly, she reaches down to pull up her pants. The jeans are tight above her knees, and she has to hop around and sort of dance to get them on properly. That makes him laugh because she looks really funny jumping around the small elevator while she pulls up her pants. She gets them on just before the doors open again, and she buttons up the front of them as she walks out of the elevator, taking a deep breath that sounds happy or relieved, maybe even both.

"Okay, guys, if you keep _that _up, we're not going to lunch," she tells them, but none of them really seem to care, except Brooklyn, who says that _she _shouldn't get punished for what _the boys _did. Tyler just shrugs and keeps walking behind Kate. He's still walking next to Brody, and he sees his brother's smile get even bigger, but he's not sure why. He just shrugs, like Tyler did, because he doesn't really care where they eat.

* * *

When they get to the library, Kate is mumbling something about being late. They took Kate's police car, or _cruiser _as she calls it. Tyler hops out of the passenger seat. Kate lets the rest of them all out one door. He climbs out first because he's closest to the door. Brody ends up opening his own door and climbing out. He hears his brother say something about not being a baby anymore. When Brooklyn climbs out of the car, she asks Kate if the back seat is where the bad guys go. Kate says the bad guys don't usually come in her car.

The New York Public Library is _huge. _He's only been here once, with his school. It was a field trip to get all the kids library cards. Brody hated that field trip, but he liked it. The teachers showed them all around the library, told them the rules and about the different kinds of books and they met a nice lady who said that if they ever needed help finding or reaching a book, they should ask her for help. He hasn't been back since, though, expect that one time his Dad brought him to return the books they got on that field trip. They didn't even go inside that day.

It's still just as big now, with huge shelves of books. He wonders how many books there are in here and tries to remember which section they're in, but Kate is already telling them that they're already _late _and that they have to hurry if they don't want to miss what they have planned. He wonders what they have planned that's at a library. He has a feeling Brody won't like it very much.

Kate leads them between the bookcases to what he recognizes as the Children's section. The shelves are smaller so kids can reach any book they want. The walls above the shelves are painted with bright colors and animals. There's a big space in the middle where there's no bookshelves. Instead, there's a bright green carpet and a bunch of tables and chairs, a few comfy looking chairs and some bright yellow and orange bean bags for people to sit on. There's a group of people sitting in the area, most of them children.

Kate tells them to go sit down with the kids and then she goes to walk to some of the mothers. She looks shy, and he wonders how she feels right now. He just shrugs it off and follows Brody to one of the bean bags. Brody sits down in it, and he sits down next to it, leaning his head against the now hard yellow bag. Brody kicks his foot against the floor and then he hears the zipper of Brody's backpack.

He looks up at his twin when Brody taps his shoulder hard. One of Brody's hands is in the backpack, and he's smiling wide, his eyes all narrow like he has a plan. He sits up straighter and Brody sits up even more on the bean bag. Brody pulls his hand out of the backpack and with it comes the whoopee cushion Brody bought at the dollar store a couple months ago. He's used it to prank just about everyone since.

"Go put this on that chair over there, upside down," says Brody, pointing across the rug, over the heads of some of the kids, at a dark blue chair. It's in front of all the children, and he soon realizes that that's where the person who reads the story will sit. He looks back up at Brody, confused.

"I thought we were only pranking Kate," he says, pointing towards the chair, "not the story teller. We don't even know her." He reaches out and grabs the whoopee cushion from the bean bag before anyone can see it. He puts it between his legs and then looks back up at his brother, still waiting for an answer.

"We are," says Brody. "Kate's going to sit there." He leans back against the bean bag and puts his hands behind his head, crossing her legs over the big yellow seat underneath him, looking like he owns the place. "You know Spencer? Well, his babysitter brought him here once, and they got there last. Turns out, the adult who gets here last has to read the story. _Kate_ got here last, so she'll read the story, and she'll sit in the chair." Brody shrugs. "Besides, even if I'm wrong, which I'm not, we get to make it look like some adult farted in a library, still funny."

He just nods, and gets up, trying to subtly walk over to the chair. He walks by it and places the whoopee cushion on the chair, upside down so the design on top doesn't show. It's actually really lucky that the whoopee cushion is the same color blue as the chair. And then, to not look suspicious, he keeps walking straight ahead and towards Kate. When she looks down at him and asks him what's wrong, he simply asks her when story time will start, and it does two things at once, because it makes story time start immediately.

One of the ladies, an older one, hands Kate a book, and Kate flips through the pages quickly before nodding to herself and going towards the chair. The older lady asks all the kids to sit down and be calm so Kate, or _Mrs. Castle, _as the lady calls her, can read them a story. The kids all find a seat, Brody sitting up straight in the bean bag. He takes his spot next to Brody again and waits. He sees the old lady look at Kate in a weird way, probably because of her green hair.

As soon as Kate sits down, everyone hears it, the fart sound the whoopee cushion makes that makes it sound _just _like Kate actually farted. All the kids start laughing, including him, but Brody the loudest. Some of the mothers send Kate glares like they're mad at her for farting in public. And Kate's cheeks turn bright red because she's embarrassed.

She stands back up for a moment and retrieves the whoopee cushion from the chair, smiles in a way that looks fake and laughs in a way that sounds forced. She holds the whoopee cushion up for everyone to see. "Kids," she says, and she shakes her head while she laughs. The other adults laugh, too.

And then she starts reading the story.

* * *

Kate reads the whole book like she already knows the story. She smiles at the right parts, never stutters over a word and flips the pages with her fingertips like it's the easiest thing in the world. He wants to read like that one day, he realizes as he watches her. He wants to never have to sound out a word, to never have to wonder if a part is happy or sad, to never have to rub the pages together to turn them.

The story is good. It's _not _great. It's for little kids, like Brooklyn, after all. It's the story of a princess who never ever laughs, and a man who does really stupid things while he works at her castle. It's not the best story he's ever heard, but it's not the worst. It actually makes him laugh. And some parts of it remind him of things Brody would do, or pranks Brody would play.

In the end, the man ends up making the princess laugh. He was a poor man, but after he makes the princess laugh, the king asks him to come and live at the castle. The man and his mom become rich, just because the man thought he was supposed to carry a cow on his shoulders. Part of him wonders how anybody could think something so stupid, but then he remembers some of the kids at his school, and realizes that there's probably some people in his class that would do something like that.

After Kate finishes the book, smiling as she tells them it's done and closes the book between her hands, the older lady who first gave Kate the book tells them all that they're going to do a little exercise. But she doesn't mean the kind of exercise that you do in gym class, the kind that Brody loves and he hates_. _She actually means the kind that you do in a normal class, the kind that _he _loves and _Brody _hates.

She tells them all that, when she's done explaining, they have to get into groups of four or five, with one or two adults to help them if they need it. He already knows his group will be him, Brody, Tyler and Brooklyn, with Kate as a helper, because that's who he came here with. The older lady says that their exercise will be to write their own funny story, and that they'll then tell and act it out in front of the group. He sees Brody smile at that, and the lady is done explaining.

Tyler is already sitting close to them, and Brooklyn crawls over from where she was sitting. He sees Kate get up and out of her chair and come over to them. Brody is leaning forward in his chair now, like he already has a story planned. Kate grabs one of the small chairs from one of the tables and sits down with them. Brody asks her, almost nicely, to leave because they want to _surprise _her with their story. And then Kate leaves, glancing at them suspiciously, but goes to look through the bookshelves, even though all the books here are for kids.

"So, I have an idea," says Brody as soon as she's gone, whispering to just the three of them. "We use this story to make Kate look bad. You know, _get_ her in front of all these people. The other kids will _love _it, and it'll be funny." Brody looks down at the ground for a moment and then back up at them. "We just have to come up with a story that will make Kate look like a fool."

He smiles at his brother. "I have an idea," he says, and everyone turns to look at him. "You've all seen _The Wizard of Oz_, right?" They all nod, Brooklyn saying something about how her Mom got her a pair of Ruby slippers _just like Dorothy's._ He smiles, and almost feels like Brody for a minute, the evil mastermind, as their Mom calls it, behind the plan. He nods. "Good." And then he tells them all about his idea.

The older woman gives them about fifteen minutes to plan. She warns them when there's only five minutes left, and Brody says they need to find props. They find them easily, and the older lady watches them as they do. He walks up to the older lady and asks if his group can go last, because they're really proud of their story and want it to be the last one people see. She says yes, so he goes to sit with his brother, Tyler and Brooklyn again.

They watch everyone else's stories. Some of them are good. One group does it about a lion at a zoo that gets free and scares everyone. Most of them aren't very good at all, though. A lot of them are funny in the way that Brody likes, all about farts and poop and pee, and the older lady tells those groups to sit down before they're even done because, as she says, it's disrespectful to talk that way in a library.

They go last, just like he wants. Brooklyn goes and tells Kate that they need her help to act it out, and then she drags Kate to the middle of the room. He explains to Kate that she just has to listen to what he says to know what to do, and that all she has to actually do is walk in a straight line and stop in front of Tyler, Brooklyn and Brody. He's the narrator, so all he has to do is tell the story while the others act it out. That's how Brody said it would be best, because the story was all his idea.

Once all the kids are calm again, he begins. "Once upon a time, in a town far, far away," he says, smiling and pushing his chest out proudly, "there was an old, ugly witch." Next to him, Brody, Tyler and Brooklyn all point to Kate, and Kate doesn't move or make a sound. "She was really mean to all the people in the town. She snored really loud at night so they couldn't sleep and always burnt her food and lit half the town on fire." Next to him, Brody, Tyler and Brooklyn all run in circles like they're running from a fire, and then go back to their places.

"One day, the people in the town all got together," his teammates form a little circle and pretend to whisper. "They decided that they had to get rid of the witch, but nobody could agree on _how._" Brody, Brooklyn and Tyler all pretend to get into a fight and go back to their places. "The three people who thought they had the very best ideas decided that they would all do their own idea to see if that would get rid of the witch.

"That weekend, the witch walked into town to do some grocery shopping," he continues, smiling as Kate listens to his words and starts walking. "The first person, a man, stopped her in the street." Kate stops in front of Tyler, nods her head like she saying hello to him, and smiles. "And then he starts punching her stomach over and over again to see if that will hurt her enough for her to want to leave."

Just like they all planned, Tyler starts punching Kate in the stomach. He doesn't punch hard enough to hurt her. It actually looks really fake, but the kids all start laughing and Kate starts making sounds like it actually does hurt and she can't breath properly, and when Tyler stops, she wraps her arms around her stomach and asks for help like she's in a lot of pain. At least, he _hopes_ she's acting.

"It didn't. The witch knew she could handle worse, so she just kept walking towards the store," he keeps telling the story. Kate lets go of her stomach and keeps walking, swinging her arms too much, like a clown does. "She met up with a beautiful young woman. The woman told her that the cure for all those warts on her face was to get plenty of water," he says, smiling as Kate and Brooklyn pretend to have a conversation. "And then, when the witch said she would follow the woman's advice, the woman splashed a whole bottle of water in the witch's face."

He turns away from the other kids to watch as Brooklyn holds up the water bottle in her hands and unscrews the cap, and then pushes it forward so most of the water splashes out of the top and onto Kate, most hitting her face, some landing on her shirt. Kate spits the water out of her mouth and wipes at her eyes with her hand, and as soon as her eyes are open again, Brooklyn splashes the rest of the water onto her face. Kate repeats her movements all over again.

The kids are all laughing really hard now, and, encouraged, he continues. "The witch thanked the woman for the advice and kept walking," he says. "She kept walking until she got to a man. He asked her why she was so upset. The witch told him all about the man and the woman and told him that she was pretty sure the people in town hated her. She wanted to know why."

He turns to watch as Kate and Brody pretend to talk to each other, and then as Brody pretends that he actually cares about Kate's, the witch's, problems. He turns back to the kids and continues. "The man told her that he knew why everyone in town hated her, and the witch asked why. The man told her it was because of her ugly face and that the best way to get people to like her would be to hide her ugly warts. He then grabbed the garbage can next to him and dumped it on top of her head."

And he turns to watch as Brody grabs the garbage can on the floor next to him, gets a chair from the table and stands up on it so he is as tall as Kate. And then he flips the garbage can upside down, making paper wrappers and fruit peels and dirty kleenexes all fall onto her head. Brody then lowers the can to it's sitting on Kate's head, hiding her face.

He turns back to the laughing group of kids and smiles. "And then the witch was so embarrassed, she decided to leave the town forever and ever," he says, smiling as everyone keeps laughing while Kate pulls the garbage can off her head, A dirty kleenex is stuck in her hair, and she makes a disgusted face as she picks it up with her fingertips and drops it into the mostly empty garbage can. "The end!"

The kids keep laughing, but all the adults are super quiet. Finally, the older lady speaks. "Well, on that note, story time is done for today. If you would like, come back next Sunday. We'll find a different, _calmer _exercise for the kids, okay?" she says, smiling at the parents like she's trying to ask them not to hate her.

Kate is picking their backpacks up off the ground, holding all four in her arms. "Okay, guys, that wasn't nice, but I'll bring you to the cafe anyway, only because I don't want to cook," she says, and Brooklyn starts bouncing happily as she walks. "So, we have to go, because it's lunchtime now. You guys didn't take anything out of your backpacks, did you?" she asks. Brody starts to answer, but she holds her hand up for him to stop. "_Besides _the whoopee cushion? Which was also not nice, by the way."

They all say no and start following her out of the library, walking between the shelves. On one of the shelves, though, he spots something familiar. It's the red cover of a book, with a woman holding a gun on the front of it. His Mom has that book. It's one of her favorites. It's one of Rick's books. He smiles to himself and tugs on Brody's sleeve to get his brother's attention.

"Look," he says, pointing to the book, "it's one of Rick's books." He smiles and goes to keep walking, but then turns back around to see Brody taking the book off the shelf. His brother runs up to Kate and grabs his backpack from her, and then runs back towards where the other kids are just starting to leave, the ladies still standing around, waiting.

Brody holds the book up for everyone to see. "Look, it's _Heat Wave_," he says, "and this book was written by Richard Castle!" He waves the book in the air. "Richard Castle is my babysitter, Kate's, husband," he continues, "and you know what that means? That means they have _sex!_" The ladies all gasp at what Brody said, and Brooklyn asks Kate what sex is. Kate's cheeks turn bright red, but he knows Brody isn't done yet, because his brother is reaching into his bag and he pulls out a piece of purple material, holds them up so everyone can see what it is. It's a pair of panties. "I bet she wears this when they do it, don't you, Kate?"

The ladies all start to leave real quick, ignoring the kids' questions. Kate's cheeks are bright red and she walks over to Brody. She grabs the panties from his hand and stuffs them into her jeans' pocket. She takes the book from him too, and holds it as she starts walking away. They all follow. She keeps holding the book until they get to the tall shelves, and then she puts it on top of one of the shelves where they can't reach.

She doesn't say a word until they get to the car.

* * *

When they get to the cafe, Kate asks them what they want for lunch. She says they have great soups here, and really good chili, too. Tyler says he wants chili, so does Brody. He and Brooklyn both ask for a bowl of chicken noodle soup. Kate nods and leads them to a booth. She tells him, Brody and Brooklyn to sit on one bench and then Tyler sits on the other. She says she'll sit next to him when she comes back.

She comes back, balancing the bowls in her hands and on a plate with a sandwich on it. He places the two soup bowls on the table first, and then the two bowls of chili, and then the sandwich in the spot where she'll be sitting. And then she goes back to the counter and comes back with a mug in one hand and four bottles of apple juice pressed against her body, she sets those down on the table and then goes back again. She comes back with a bag of five muffins. And then she finally takes her seat.

They all eat almost silently. Brooklyn slurps the soup off her spoon and Brody blows onto his bites of chili really loudly. The bread of Kate's sandwich is toasted and it crunches every time she takes a bite. And she sips her coffee between almost every bite. Brooklyn makes growling noises as she tries to open her juice bottle. Tyler ends up opening it for her. But besides that and the sounds of others eating, it's quiet.

Kate finishes her sandwich first, and then she just leans back against the booth's bench and watches them all eat. Brody finishes his chili second, and he finishes his soup third, washing down the last piece of chicken with a big chug of apple juice. Tyler finishes next and spends his time just staring out the window while they all wait for Brooklyn to finish. But right after Brooklyn takes her last bite, she spills the rest of her apple juice, about half the bottle, onto the table.

Kate tells her not to worry about it and ends up cleaning up the table with a ton of napkins. The whole table is covered with juice and soaked napkins and Kate goes to throw the dirty napkins in the garbage so she can keep cleaning. She comes back and finishes cleaning up the mess, throwing the final few napkins in the trash can closest to their booth. And then she comes back and tells them that she's going to order Brooklyn a new juice and that, while she's gone, they can each have _one _muffin from the bag.

It's right after she leaves that Brody all but pushes him out of the booth, since he's the one sitting at the end. And then his brother grabs a couple muffins from the bag. Brody hands one to Brooklyn and then hands one to him, pointing to the empty space where Kate sits. Brody pretends to pull a wrapper off a muffin with his hands, so he starts pulling the wrapper off his muffin. And when Brody points to the bench again, he follows his twin's silent order and places the muffin on the empty seat. He sits back down next to Brody and waits, grabbing another muffin from the bag and eating it himself.

Kate comes back a few minutes later with another bottle of apple juice. She opens it and then closes it again and then rolls it across the table towards Brooklyn. The little girl grabs it and screws the lid off the bottle, taking a big sip before closing the bottle again. Kate smiles at Brooklyn, and then she sits down next to Tyler, still smiling until her butt touches the seat.

Her smile falls almost instantly, obviously feeling the muffin under her butt. "Okay, I'm going to bring our dishes to the counter and throw out our trash. I want you guys to be ready to leave when I get back," she tells them, and then she stands up, picks up the squashed muffin from the bench and their dishes and garbage and goes to do exactly what she said she would do.

He eats the rest of his muffin really fast, so he's finished when Kate comes back. When she does, she tells them all to get up so they can leave. They left their backpacks in the car, so they all just slip out from between the benches and the table and they follow her out of the cafe, all silent and waiting for her to get mad because, really, he's never seen any adult be so calm after pranks as bad as the ones they've pulled on Kate.

There's a big brown stain on her pants now, from the chocolate muffin, and it looks almost exactly like she pooped her pants. He wonders, for a minute, if she knows how bad it is, because he thinks that if she did she would do something about it. He knows that if _his _pants looked like he pooped in them, he would at least try to clean them up so it wouldn't look as bad. But Kate isn't doing anything to get the brown off her butt.

She leads them all the way back to the car, but when they get there, she doesn't tell them to get into their usual spots, but instead just opens the trunk, pulls a big, black bag out of it, closes the truck and turns around and starts walking back down the sidewalk they were just on. A few other kids on the sidewalk who see Kate's butt point and laugh, tugging on their Mom's or Dad's hands to point it out, but Kate ignores them. Confused, he just follows, and keeps following until she walks into a small-looking building with statues in the windows.

The store is full of clothes for women. It covers the walls and shelves and _everything. _There's jeans and fancy tops and nice jackets. There's simpler tops, too, like the ones his Mom wears on her days off from the hospital. There's all kinds of girls clothes, and Brooklyn instantly starts pointing out what she likes. And Kate, despite the chocolate muffin that looks like poop on her butt, starts asking Brooklyn why she likes those specific pieces of clothing, like they're actually here to shop.

He sees Brody being all suspicious from the corner of his eye and decides to watch his brother instead of listening to Kate and Brooklyn talking about clothes. He watches as Brody pulls on the zipper of Kate's bag, slowly so he doesn't make any noise to alert Kate. Brooklyn is distracting Kate enough for Kate to not realize what Brody's up to, but he sees his brother pulling her clean clothes out of the bag, and hiding them under an overflowing rack of clothes that are on sale.

Kate and Brooklyn keep talking for a while, but then Kate tells Brooklyn that she has to go change. She goes towards one of the changing rooms, pulls the curtain open and then slides it closed again. He sees her kick her shoes off, and Brody lays down on the floor and waits. He hears the zipper of her jeans coming undone and then sees them bunch up around her ankles until she kicks them off. Brody's hand pops under the curtain and he pulls the jeans out, leaving Kate in the changing room in her underwear with no pants to put on.

They all wait a long time for Kate to come out. Brody gives Tyler her dirty jeans and then runs to the rack to get her yoga pants. He watches the bottom of the curtain, sees Kate pull something up over her legs and he realizes she found _something _to wear while she tries to get her pants from Brody. He's just not sure what. Brody comes back to the curtain, holds the yoga pants out in front of him, and waits for Kate to come out.

When Kate _does_ come out of the change room, she's wearing this tiny, short little bright pink skirt that barely covers her butt, but he guess that it's all she could find. Her eyes instantly land on Brody.

"Give me my pants," Kate says in the kind of scary-calm voice his Mom uses when she's trying not to yell.

Brody laughs, flings the black pants over his shoulder and starts running around the store quickly. He runs a lot faster than Kate does now, since she's wearing the tiny little skirt that almost shows her underwear every time she takes a step.

Brody ducks and dodges and runs around the shelves and racks of jeans and tops and yoga pants a lot like Kate's. Eventually, Kate just gives up, grabs a random pair of black pants off the rack, checks the tag and then goes to pay for them at the cash. She goes back into the changing room and comes out wearing her new black pants, ignores Brody's groan of disappointment and tells them all it's time to leave.

They follow without question, but Brody leaves Kate's top from the big bag behind.

* * *

**Big thank you to la z boy and everyone who has read this story.**


	9. Chapter 8

**Tyler Morgan.**

* * *

Kate is silent the whole way back to the apartment. She doesn't say a word on the walk from the clothing store back to her car. She doesn't let them turn on the radio in the car, so it's quiet and awkward and they all just stare out the windows and watch the other cars pass by. She's quiet on the elevator ride up, too; doesn't say a word, just stands in front of the control panel so nobody can get to it, so they can't prank her in the elevator _again_. She's quiet until they get into her apartment and she tells them to go watch TV while she does paperwork in the office.

He really can't blame her for being mad. They've dyed her hair, ruined her mattress, given her multiple bruises and publicly humiliated her multiple times. Random strangers have seen her in her underwear. The internet is circling a picture of her with signs on her butt, the most talked about being the "Spank me!" sign Brody made, according to the articles he found on his iPod earlier. She had garbage dumped on her head, was soaked with water more than once, sat on a chocolate muffin and had to run around a store in a skirt so short you could practically see her underwear. He would be mad, too.

In fact, he's never pulled this many pranks on anyone without having to suffer severe consequences. His Mom would have taken away his iPod and computer privileges just for the pranks they pulled during arts and crafts. And, meanwhile, the only thing Kate has punished them with was silence, as awkward as it was, during a drive from a cafe to her apartment, a drive which, really, wasn't all that long.

And he knows it's risky, continuing with this plan just because Kate hasn't snapped yet. He also knows that if any of this gets back to his Mom or Elizabeth, all four of them will be in big trouble. And now, at the very least, he knows that one prank will get back to them, because there's no way Kate will be able to convince them that she randomly decided to dye her hair the ugliest shade of green imaginable, and did it voluntarily while she was babysitting four kids. So he will get punished, no matter what, and so will Brooke and so will Brody and Braden.

And it's that fact that has him going along with each new prank. If he's already going to get punished, anyway, he might as well get as much fun and laughter out of this weekend as possible, right? If he's already going to be grounded for a week for assisting the twins in dying Kate's hair green, what's the actual harm in playfully punching Kate in the stomach or not trying to stop her from sitting on a muffin?

So he's been playing along, because it actually is funny, and like most babysitters, Kate is fun to prank. He doesn't like babysitters in general. They're stupid and he doesn't actually _need _them, anyway, since he's not a baby. He can look after himself and his sister without anyone dying and without burning the house down, so why he has to put up with people like Kate is beyond him. But playing pranks makes it a little more fun.

And that's why, when Brody tells him to keep an eye on Kate, he takes the seat from which you can't see the TV and starts playing _Ninja _on his iPod once again. He looks up every time his ninja dies to see Kate doing paperwork at the desk in the office. The laptop is closed next to her for the entire length of the first cartoon, and she looks incredibly bored, and it's incredibly boring to watch her, as she does nothing but sign papers and set them aside, repeating the process over and over again.

They're about halfway through an episode of _Adventure Time, _and he's managed to break his high score, reaching twenty-eight jumps, which makes him happy, when Kate does something new. She sets another paper on the pile of filled-out ones, looks down at the next one and then puts the pen down. He watches, hiding his face behind his iPod, as she glances at the closed laptop, opens it up, clicks a few things and then reaches into one of the desk's drawers. She pulls out a pair of headphones that look a lot like his and plugs them into the laptop, then slips them onto her head.

He smiles, watching as she goes back to her paperwork. She's distracted now. And if her headphones are anything like his, she can't hear _anything. _And that means she can't hear them. He waits a minute, watches as she signs a few more papers, setting each one aside, and then, finally stands, still smiling. He stuffs his iPod into his pocket and goes over to Brody, who's watching TV with Braden and Brooklyn, and taps his shoulder.

"What?" asks Brody, sounding annoyed as he looks away from his episode of _Phineas and Ferb. _He motions with his finger for Brody to stand up, and then for his friend to follow him over to where they can see Kate. She's still doing boring paperwork, but she's also still listening to music, unable to hear them, and not paying attention to them. "Oh," says Brody. "That's good."

Brody tells Braden to get ready, and they walk into the kitchen. He tells Brooklyn that it's time for her favorite prank, and she happily follows him into the kitchen. He goes to the closet where Kate got the pillows and stuff for bed last night. At the bottom, he finds a big bucket, bigger than any he's ever seen before, quickly realizing that the mop that goes with it is hanging on the door. He grabs the bucket and brings it back into the kitchen. Braden and Brooklyn are sitting on some of the barstools, and Brody is looking through the fridge, grabbing every liquid in sight.

He puts the bucket on the counter in front of Brooke. Braden is pulling things out of his backpack, string and little wooden circle things that he has no idea what Braden will do with. But Braden's the smart one who puts all the science-y and math-y things for the pranks together, so he doesn't doubt him. He has no reason to. Braden has never failed them, has never built a contraption that didn't work. Everyone does their job so well. By now, they've had plenty of practice and have mastered the process.

He turns back to the other counter and finds a wooden spoon in one of the drawers. He opens some of the top cupboards and finds chocolate sauce and mustard and vinegar, too, and sets those on the counter, on the other side of the bucket. Brody has found things like mayo and ketchup and salad dressing and barbecue sauce, which are also sitting on the counter. They smile at each other, and then give Brooklyn a thumb's up.

His sister kneels on the stool, and pushes herself up so she's taller. He sees her reach for the ketchup first, her favorite topping that she puts on almost _everything_. She takes the cap off, unscrewing it, and turns the bottle upside down over the bucket. Her smile is wide as she squeezes the ketchup bottle, making the thick red condiment fall into the bucket in clumps. It's gross, but that's the point. _The grosser, the better, _Brody likes to say.

He grabs the chocolate sauce and screws the cap off, setting it aside on the counter. Meanwhile, Brody grabs the mayo and finds a spoon in one of the drawers. He squeezes the chocolate sauce into the bowl as Brooke makes a disgusted sound at the sight of ketchup and chocolate mixing together. It really _does_ look gross, the dark brown sauce a little thicker than the ketchup, so it seeps through the clumps. It gets even worse when Brody starts scooping spoonfuls of mayo into the bucket.

They continue to empty all the bottles into the bucket. Brody and Brooke do the two creamy salad dressings while he does the mustard. They each do a different kind of barbecue sauce. It turns into a gross, multicolored pile of goop at the bottom of the bucket. The dark brown chocolate turns the mayo brown, too, and the barbecue sauce makes the ranch sauce look reddish brown, the mustard making the ceasar sauce look gross and yellow.

When all the bottles are empty, with only the vinegar remaining, Brody grabs the wooden spoon and mixes them all together. Braden has gone to begin setting up his contraption of string and wooden thingies. Brooklyn's nose is crinkled in disgust as she watches Brody mix everything together. It's gross, the color merging into a weird, dark brown that's almost black, streaks of white and yellow and red in it. It makes a weird, icky sound as Brody turns the spoon around and around.

Brody says it's too thick, so he dumps some of the vinegar into it. Brody keeps stirring. It smells bad, the scents mixing together in a horrible way. The vinegar only makes it smell worse. It burns his nose and Brooke pinches hers. Brody just smiles and stares down at the gooey mixture.

"This is gonna get Kate _so _good," says Brody.

* * *

They're sitting in the living room again, now watching an old episode of _Scooby Doo _when Kate comes out of the office. She's smiling now and doesn't look mad any more. She thanks them for letting her get her work done in peace and tells them she got _all _the paperwork she needed to finish done. And then she sits down in the chair next to the couch and starts watching _Scooby Doo _with them, still smiling. She looks happy. She definitely doesn't know what they did while she was doing her work.

After they had finished mixing the kitchen supplies in the bucket, turning them into this thick, dark, disgusting goo, Braden started actually putting up the contraption. He put a trip string at the bottom of the doorway and, using a chair to reach, pulled the string all the way up to the top of the doorway. Watching Braden put it all together, he didn't know how it would work, but Braden was sure that it would, so he didn't bother to question it. Braden was always the smartest one.

And now they're all sitting here, watching TV together, and Kate is happy and they're all happy, but for a different reason. Kate has no idea that, soon, later, she'll get a bucket of kitchen goop on her head, and then she'll have to clean up and the floor will have kitchen goop all over it. She has no idea that they're going to prank her _again_ and she's going to hate it just like she hated the other ones.

For a minute, he contemplates telling her, but then he remembers that Kate is his _babysitter _and that, no matter how nice she is, he hates babysitters. So he doesn't tell her. He sits up in his chair, pulls out his iPod and starts playing Ninja and waits for Brody to put their plan into action. He waits and waits and waits while he listens to Scooby and Shaggy get scared of _everything _and makes his ninja jump between red blocks and purple blocks. And, eventually, he gets bored, so he does it himself.

"Kate?" he asks, glancing up from his iPod to look at her. She hums and turns away from the TV to look at him, as though she's telling him she's listening. A smiles comes across her face, and she mouths something that he doesn't understand. "Can I have something to drink?" he asks. Brody looks away from the TV to look at him, instead, and smiles, because Brody knows what he's doing.

"Sure," says Kate, still smiling at him. She stands up from the couch quickly, practically jumping to her feet. "Why don't you come with me and choose what you want?" she adds, and he sees Brody's smile grow as his friend gives him a thumbs up. He slips his hand into his pocket and curls his fingers around the rubber case of his iPod. Kate's already walking away, but when she turns to face him, he nods and runs after her.

He tries to be subtle when he pulls his iPod out of his pocket, following down her down the hallway. He pulls his iPod out of his pocket and holds it up in front of him. He tries to make it look like he's playing a game when he's actually pulling up the camera app, changing it from picture to video. Kate has no idea. She's just walking towards the kitchen's wide doorway, where Braden put the trip string.

He's almost surprised that Kate doesn't notice, doesn't notice that he's videotaping her, doesn't notice that there's a string stretched across the doorway, hovering a few inches off the floor. But, luckily, she doesn't notice. She doesn't notice and next thing he knows, her toes are trapped under the string, just like the twins planned. And he can hear the twins gasping in anticipation, Brooklyn giggling softly, and he watches from behind his iPod.

It looks almost like slow motion in a movie. Their kitchen mixture is thick as it slides out of the bucket. He doesn't actually breathe while he waits, watches the big bucket tip, as Braden planned, and the black goo begins the slide down the side of it. He watches as Kate looks down at her foot, confused, her toes tangled up in the string. He sees the Moment that she realizes what's going on, the way she tilts her head up quickly, and the twins gasp again. So does Brooklyn.

Kate is looking up at the ceiling, up at the bucket, and her sees her squeeze her eyes shut really tight as the black goo begins to fall from the bucket and down towards her face. The first glop of it hits her right in the face, on her eyes and her nose and some of it lands on her lips. He wonders if it's as gross as it looks, figuring that it must be, because they mixed a lot of things together, things that shouldn't be mixed.

Kate scrunches up her face at the feeling, and looks down at the ground. Some of the goo must have gotten inside her mouth, because she starts spitting at the floor. She makes a sputtering sound like his Dad's motorcycle makes when it's broken. Some of the goo lands on the floor, the dark color of their kitchen mixture almost the exact same color as the wood.

Braden and Brody have hopped off the couch now. Brooklyn is following them, skipping from the couch to where Kate is standing. They're all laughing their heads off, all four of them. He has to fight to stay standing up straight because he's laughing so hard. But he has to try really hard to keep standing up and to keep his hand steady so the video doesn't get all shaky. His Mom hates shaky videos.

The next glob of goo lands on the back of Kate's head. Her hair is still up in a messy bun and the black makes the green look really funny. Well, funnier than it already did. Kate makes a gasping sound and her hand lands right on the back of her head. It makes a squishing sound when it lands in the goo, and when she pulls her hand off her head, her fingers are full of black goo. She shakes her hand to get it off.

The next, and last, glob lands on her head, too, but this time she's standing up straighter so the goo lands right on the top of her head and splashes around her. It's the biggest of all the globs, and some of it stays on her head, some of it falls down her neck, some of it falls down her face and some of it lands on the floor. It makes a messy, lopsided circle around Kate's feet.

Kate makes that sputtering sound again. She wipes her mouth quickly with the back of her clean, well, _cleaner_ hand. She spits at the ground again, over and over again. She wipes the black goo off her eyes and flicks her hand at the ground to get some of the goo off it. She wipes her forehead and her nose and her chin and the back of her neck. She runs her fingers through her hair and throws some of the goo on the ground, too. Some of it has splashed onto her shirt, too.

She lets her hair out of the bun, but it stays in place like the goo is some kind of hair gel or something like that. She pulls it down and then shivers when it touches her neck, but he's not sure why. She whips her hair back away from her neck and it makes a slapping, squishy sound when it hits her skin again. She shivers again and wipes a bunch of the goo off her hair, sending it flying to the floor.

"Well," says Kate, but he can barely hear her voice over all the laughing. He stops taping and, finally, lets himself lean over, his hands on his knees, while he laughs. He laughs and laughs and laughs along with Braden and Brody and Brooklyn. He laughs until his stomach hurts, laughs until his fingernail are digging into his legs, laughs until it hurts too much to laugh anymore.

Brooklyn and Brody are on the ground now. Brooke is lying on her back, her arms draped across her stomach. She keeps laughing, but her laughs are soft now, less loud and more like she just can't stop. Brody is sitting down with his knees pulled up in front of him. His arms are crossed over his knees, and his head is buried between his legs, between his arms. He's still laughing, too, but the sound is somewhat blocked by his arms and legs, sounding softer than it really is.

He and Braden are still standing. Braden is leaning his back against the wall. His head is tilted back against the wall. One of Braden's hands is on his stomach, the other pressed against the hard wall, just like his head, and he lets out quick breaths that are sorta like laughs. And he, himself, is standing, leaning forward with one hand on his thigh and the other in his hair, his stomach aching, forcing laughs out of him anyway, and he watches Kate as she stares at the floor.

Kate eventually steps out of the circle of goo on the floor. One of her toes lands in one of the goo drops, and the gross black goo stains her purple sock. Kate makes a wincing face and takes another step forward, with her clean foot. And then she lifts her other foot off the floor, reaches down to slip her sock off her foot and then actually puts her foot back on the floor.

She looks hilarious. She looks so _funny _that he can't help but stand up straight again and takes a quick picture of her from behind. Her hair is green and black, a wet, ugly mess that is stuck to her back. Her shirt is all stained, dark and wet and gross. Her black pants are tight, and though he's pretty sure there _is _some goo on them, he can't see it in the picture. And she's only wearing one bright purple sock, her other foot bare against the floor.

"Well, looks like I have to take _another _shower," says Kate. She turns towards them, and he takes a picture of her from the front, her hair stuck to her forehead, goo smeared across her face. "Tyler," she tells him, "there's water bottles in the fridge if you want one of those to drink. I'll be in the shower, when I come out, I'm going to plan supper, which will be from a restaurant nearby. I want to know what all of you guys want on your cheeseburgers." And then she smiles and walks towards her bedroom, still holding her sock in her hand.

He steps over the mess on the floor to get to the fridge and takes out a bottle. Then, he steps back over the mess and goes back into the living room with Braden, Brody and Brooke.

* * *

Kate's shower is quick, really quick, even faster than his mother's morning showers are. She comes out of her room wearing big, grey sweatpants and a black t-shirt that fits her perfectly. Her hair is, once again, pulled up in a bun and she's no longer wearing any makeup. Her steps are fast, but she looks around the room like she expects another bucket to dump stuff on her, like she's looking out for something to come flying at her.

She goes into the kitchen, looks at the floor for a moment before going back down the hallway. She comes out with a mop, but no bucket. She leans the mop against one of the walls, steps over the mess and into the kitchen. He watches from the chair in the living room as she walks around the kitchen. She pulls the rope in the doorway undone and she drops the bucket down onto the floor. It hits the floor with a clunking sound.

He can't see what she does for a while. She picks the bucket up off the floor and walks into the kitchen, disappearing behind the wall. He hears her running the water and guesses that she's cleaning the rest of the black goo out of the bucket. When she comes back to where he can see her, she's holding the bucket with both hands and drops it down on the floor next to the mess. And then she grabs the mop.

She cleans up the mess quickly, like she does this every day, like the school janitor does at the end of lunchtime. She wrings the mop out and into the bucket and keeps wiping off the floor, leaving the wood dark and wet and almost shining. And then she disappears again. He hears a splashing sound and guesses that she's dumping the bucket full of dirty water into the sink. She walks back into the hallway holding the bucket and the mop, and then comes into the living room.

She sits down on the coffee table, grabbing the TV remote in one hand. She turns off the TV really quickly, making Brody, Braden and Brooklyn all groan at the loss of their episode of _SpongeBob SquarePants. _Kate doesn't react, she just sets the remote down on the table next to her and pulls her iPhone out of her pocket. She taps the screen a few times and then motions for him to come sit with the others, like she wants to talk to them. He obeys, standing up and leaning against the couch's armrest.

"So, I know it's only like _one_," says Kate, "but like I said, I want to plan dinner ahead of time, instead of having a repeat of last night." She chuckles softly, and so do they, because they all remember how she burned their supper yesterday. "So, you guys all like burgers, right?" They all nod. "Cheeseburgers?" They nod again. "Okay, then, I want to know what you guys want on your cheeseburgers."

They all tell her what they want. Brooklyn only like ketchup and mustard on hers. She's always been like that. Brody likes _everything _on his, even the onions. And it makes Kate laugh when Braden tells her he wants everything on his, too, _except _the onions. He tells her he likes pickles and tomatoes on his, but no onions or lettuce. Kate types it all into her phone, and then she nods down at the phone and looks up at them.

"Is there anything you guys want to do this afternoon?" she asks. She's smiling at them like nothing is wrong. Like they didn't do anything to her, like she didn't just wash off a bucket worth of kitchen supply goo off herself. A bucket worth of goo that _they _made fall on her. "I didn't really plan anything, figured by this point you guys would be comfortable enough with me to tell me what you want to do."

He just shrugs, really not sure of what he'd like to do, and Kate smiles at him as he stands up from the tablet and sits down in the chair again. Brody and Braden start arguing and bickering and shoving at each other. Braden is saying something about doing an experiment, which he _really doesn't _want to do. He can't understand what Brody is saying. He's mumbling too much.

Brooke is the one that says something. "Can you read me a book?" she asks, her voice soft and light and innocent, but he sees Brody smile at her words and realizes that something must be going on. Brody must have told her to say that. "And can we go in the office? I like the office. It's nice. Maybe you can read me a story in there?" Brooklyn smiles. "The boys can come, too, if they want."

Kate smiles. "Okay," she says. "I'm sure we must have some of Alexis' old books in there somewhere, something that I can read to you guys." She pushes herself up from the table, holds her hand out to Brooke and, still smiling, pulls Brooke up and off the couch. She turns to them. "Do you guys want to come?" she asks, motioning with her hand to the doorway to the office.

Before he can answer for himself, Brody is talking. "No, thank you, Kate," he says, smiling up at her like he's the most innocent boy in the world. But he's not. He's _not_ the most innocent boy in the world. He's actually been really bad to Kate, just like they all have been. And yet Kate still seems to trust them enough, enough to leave them alone. "Another episode of _SpongeBob _plays next."

Kate smiles and nods and then lets Brooke pull her into the office. Sure enough, another episode of _SpongeBob SquarePants _starts playing within minutes, and the twins start watching that. For a moment, he wonders if he was wrong and Brooke actually _did _just want to have Kate read her a story. But then he notices that Brody keeps glancing around the TV at where Kate and Brooke are, like he's planning something.

They're about halfway through the first half of the _SpongeBob SquarePants _episode when Brody turns to him, a smile on his face. "Tyler," he whispers, and his eyes go back to Kate and Brooke, as though to make sure they're not listening, "I'm going to go take care of the next prank. If Kate asks where I am, tell her I'm in the bathroom or something, okay?"

He nods, smiling back at Brody. Braden looks over Brody's head and gives him a thumb's up. And then Brody nods and stands up, disappears down the hallway towards the dining room. He looks back at the TV as Braden laughs at something Squidward says. He glances around the TV and sees Kate and Brooke lying on the floor on their bellies, side by side, their backs to them. And then he settles back against the couch and keeps watching _SpongeBob SquarePants _with Braden.

* * *

Kate and Brooklyn finish their story at around the same time as their episode of _Adventure Time, _which played after _SpongeBob SquarePants_ finished. They climb off the floor and Brooklyn skips over to him and into the living room, plopping herself down on the center of the couch. She smiles and giggles when she sees what's on TV, telling Kate excitedly that Princess Bubblegum is her _favorite. _Kate smiles and sits down on the chair.

It takes a couple seconds before Kate notices that Brody is missing. She glances around the room and then turns towards him, brows furrowed together like she's confused. She asks him where Brody is, motioning to Braden as though he's actually Brody. He tells her, like Brody told him to, that Brody is in the bathroom. He makes sure to keep his voice loud enough for Brody to hear him from the dining room, so that his friend will know that Kate might come looking for him, catching him in the act of preparing their prank.

Sure enough, Brody comes running into the living room only a minute later. Before he does, though, he hears the toilet flush, and smiles at how well prepared Brody is. Kate smiles at him when he comes running into the room, and then Brody plops down on the couch between Braden and Brooklyn. Braden leans down to whisper something in his brother's ear. Brody nods. He guesses that that means that everything they needed to prepare for the prank is now ready.

They all sit around together and watch an episode of _The Fairly OddParents. _Kate actually laughs at some parts, like she actually likes the show. He laughs, too, because the show is actually funny. They all watch it together. Kate asks questions sometimes, about old episodes that they might have seen. Braden is the best at answering her questions. He's always the one that remembers the details.

It's when the show's credits are rolling that Kate excuses herself to go to the bathroom. He sees Brody's smile as Kate stands up from her chair and goes walking down the hallway. He listens to her footsteps, tunes out the TV like his Mom says she does at work sometimes, when she's doing a stakeout. He listens to her footsteps until they stop, and then he hears her sigh, turn around and walk quickly back into the living room.

"Someone wanna explain the mess in the dining room?" she asks, her voice sounding a little mad, but not really mad, not like his mother's would be. She crosses her arms over her chest, eyebrows way high up on her forehead. "Because when I last left the dining room, it was clean. And now it's not," she adds, motioning with her hand to the hallway. "So?"

He shrugs. So does Braden, and Brooklyn looks really confused, but he's not sure if she actually is. Brody is the one who speaks. "I don't know," he says, "when I went to the bathroom, it was already like that. I don't know why, though. I thought someone else did it." Brody shrugs, smiling at Kate, like he's shy, tilting his head to one side. "Do you want help cleaning it up?"

Kate smiles, but she doesn't look happy. She looks more like she's doubting Brody and trying to hide it. "No, thank you. It's okay, Brody. I can take care of it. You just... enjoy your TV show," she tells Brody, slowly uncrossing her arms. And then she flashes one more smile and turns away from them, and back towards the dining room. Brody smiles and gives him a thumb's up when she's gone.

It doesn't even take five minutes, which he knows because he was watching the time on his iPod, before Kate shouts from the kitchen. She shouts really loud, sounding angry. She calls all four of their names, and when they walk into the dining room, fighting back laughter, she's leaning over the table. The bottom parts of her arms are pressed against the table. And her eyebrows are raised.

"Care to explain why I'm stuck to the table?" she asks. She pulls on her arm and, sure enough, it barely moves. "And _how _you guys glued me to the table?" He sees her trying to pull her arms out of the glue again, but she only ends up getting her fingertips stuck, too. It leaves her palms in little cups over the table, her arms and wrists stuck all the way to her elbows.

It's kinda crazy, actually. He remembers back when Brody told him that Krazy Glue could hold _anything _in place. Of course, he hadn't believed him, because it's just glue. And then Brody had proceeded to glue his father to a chair. And Lucky, Brody's father, had _actually _stayed stuck. Plus, Lucky is a cop, just like Kate, and he's strong and he couldn't even get out. He ended up ripping his pants when he finally got up.

And now, here's Kate, stuck to the table. Except she doesn't have a shirt she can rip when she gets up. The only thing she can rip is her skin, and that is _not_ a good idea, nor something he thinks she would want to do. She she's standing there, leaning over the table. And it almost looks like a normal position, except for the way her hands are placed. And the fact that looks mad at them.

"No? No explanations?" she asks, tilting her head to the side, eyebrows still raised up. "Well, can you guys at least get me unstuck?" she asks this time. She tries to pull her arm off the table again, and the glue pulls her skin. Her skin looks white when it's stretched, and she makes a hissing sound before leaning back against the table again, smiling at them in that way his Mom does when she`s getting annoyed.

Brody`s the one that answers, shaking his head. "Nope," he says and then he marches over to stand next to Kate. "I didn't use _all _my Krazy Glue for _nothing_," he tells Kate. "That stuff is _expensive. _And my Mom won't even buy it for me, so I have to use my allowance." Brody smiles, and Kate rolls her eyes at him. And then Brody walks up so he's standing behind Kate. "Besides, I don't know how to get you unstuck. My Dad didn't get unstuck until he ripped his pants."

"What?" asks Kate, and she turns quickly to look at Brody, eyes big and wide and scared looking. "You glued me to my dining table and _don't know_ how to get me unglued?" she adds, though the answer is obvious from Brody's laughing, as he holds his fingers up in front of him to make a sort of rectangle, one eye closed, staring at Kate's butt. "What are you doing?" she asks.

Brody looks up at her, smiling, showing off his teeth and the ones that are missing. His hands are still out in front of him, but both his eyes are open now. "Measuring your butt," he tells Kate, and she gasps as he goes back to making his finger-rectangle bigger, moving his fingers a little farther away from him. "You know, it's huge like this. I bet Rick likes that." Kate growls, letting her head fall forward. "Tyler, come take a picture of this."

He nods, laughing softly. Brooklyn and Braden are laughing ever so softly, each leaning against the wall, watching Kate's face. He walks over to where Brody is standing and pulls his iPod out of his pocket. With a few practiced taps, he has the camera app open and ready and Brody is telling him from which angles Kate's butt looks biggest. He takes one straight on, and one from either side, one from the top and one from the bottom and he and Brody are laughing at how big Kate's butt actually does look in the pictures.

"Okay, guys, did you guys have your fun now?" asks Kate. She sounds really upset and almost tired, really annoyed with both of them. "Because, if you did, and if you do have enough pictures of my a– butt, then maybe I can do something about my...predicament." She takes a deep breath when they just start laughing more, and tilts her head down like she wants to rest it in her hands, but she can't because her fingers are glued to that table.

"Nope," answers Brody, making the P sound like a popping sound. "Do you know how big your butt is, Kate?" he asks, and then Brody bends forward, tilts his head to as though to get a better angle and squints. "It's huge!" He laughs, so do Braden and Brooklyn and Brody and Kate makes a groaning sound. "It could be like a target. Or… Oh, it could be a drum. Tyler plays the drums in music class. Tyler, come see if Kate's butt is big enough," continues Brody, standing up straight again and winking at him.

He smiles. "Sure," he says, and then he takes Brody's place behind Kate. He holds his hands up like Brody did, to sorta measure her butt. "It looks like it's big enough. It's bigger than a bongo." Carefully, slowly, he pokes one of Kate's butt cheeks, and she makes that groaning sound again. "It should work, Brody," he tells his friend, turning to smile at Brody, and then he lets his hands hover over Kate's butt.

The first tap against her butt cheek has Kate trying to pull her arm off the table again, her foot coming off the floor as though she's trying to kick his leg. She misses. He taps the other butt cheek next, and Kate makes an angry grumbling sound, kicking at empty air once again. And she keeps trying to kick him with every other tap, as he taps her butt just like he does his drum at school. He manages to avoid every one of her blind kicks, and plays faster as Brody, Braden and Brooklyn laugh louder and louder.

"Tyler!" shouts Kate eventually, her voice loud, but it sounds almost quiet because of how loud they're all laughing, "I swear, if you do not stop right now, I will tell your mothers _everything _when they come and pick you up later." And he stops, because he knows that if his Mom hears about _this_, not to mention everything else, he'll be grounded for, like, ever. And he doesn't want that. "Thank you," says Kate, when he stops.

Brody makes a pfft noise. "We're not done yet. Just done _drumming_," he says, and then Body walks around the table to stand in front of Kate. He follows, only to see Kate's face. Brody is smiling that mischievous smile and Kate strains against the glue on her arms, as though trying to reach him. Brody just leans forward. He pulls on some of the hairs that are loose from her bun, and then turns to Braden and Brooklyn. "Any ideas?"

Braden smiles and nods. "I have one!" he says, and then he jumps up and away from the wall and disappears into the kitchen. They all stand and wait while Brody does something, _whatever_ in the kitchen. He comes back holding a bowl, and he walks right up to them. Braden stands in between him and Brody, holds the bowl up so they see what's in it.

It's a bowl full of melted chocolate and a small metal spoon. Braden stirs the chocolate with the spoon, scoops up and spoonful and lets it slowly drip back into the bowl. Kate watches the chocolate with big, wide eyes and she groans when the last drop lands in the bowl again. Brody laughs at her reaction, and then he takes his brother's hand and tugs Braden until they're standing behind Kate. He follows, and so does Brooklyn.

Since it was Braden's idea, they let him do the dirty work. He scoops up some more of the chocolate and lets it drop down onto Kate's butt. It makes a little pile, the dark brown staining the light grey fabric of her pants. He smiles as Braden presses the back of the spoon into the little pile and he drags it down the seam of her pants, down on her butt. And then he does it again and again and again.

"Seriously?" asks Kate. "You guys are actually that…immature? You guys find chocolate on my butt this funny?" she continues as they laugh louder and louder and louder, Braden adding more chocolate to the smear on her pants. "You know what? Do whatever you want. Have fun. Ruin all my clothes. Whatever. I really don't care." And then she leans forward and stops fighting.

"Okay," says Brody. And then he takes the chocolate from his brother and dumps what's left onto her butt, smearing the pile down her butt with the tips of his fingers. "Brooklyn, go get your jump ropes," he says, "and Tyler, you should take pictures of this, too."

So he does. He pulls his iPod out of his pocket and holds it up in front of them and takes a bunch of pictures of Kate's butt, smeared with chocolate that looks like poo. He takes a picture from every angle, a picture from above and a picture from below, even a picture of Brody with Kate's butt, and one of both the twins with the chocolate that looks like poo.

Brooklyn comes skipping back into the dining room only minutes later. She's holding her three blue, plastic jump ropes, and they swing back and forth when she skips. She holds them out for Brody, and Brody takes one while he, himself, takes the other from her hand. She swings the other one around, as though silently asking if they need it, before dropping it to the floor in the corner of the room.

Brody climbs onto one of the chairs. He bends down and drops to his knees of the floor next to Kate's feet. He quickly loops the jump rope around Kate's legs, ties a quick knot with it. The fact that it's rubber makes the rope hard to tie, but he manages to get it tight enough so that, even when she tries to kick his hands away, she can't, because her feet are tied together.

When he stands back up, Brody has Kate's hands tied together, and he hops off the chair, smiling proudly.

Kate lets out a big sigh. "Wonderful," she says.

* * *

**Thank you to la z boy and everyone reading this.**


	10. Chapter 9

**Brody Spencer.**

* * *

He sits down on the floor, back pressed against the wall, right next to Tyler. Brooklyn is kneeling in front of him, leaning over him so she can see the iPod Tyler's holding, too. And while Kate stays glued to the table, completely stuck, hands and feet tied together with jump ropes, practically unable to move, they sit down right in front of her and watch the video of her getting drenched in goo and look at the pictures of her butt. And as they laugh their heads off, Kate just sighs and groans over and over again.

After they've seen the video like ten times and they've looked at all the pictures over and over again, they all stand up. He tells his twin brother to go get his backpack in the living room so they can all work on the next prank together, while Kate is stuck and can't see anything behind her. So Braden does, running into the living room slowly, jogging back with his blue bag slung over his shoulder. And then they all sit down right behind Kate's legs, where she definitely can't see them.

Braden and Tyler work on the string portions of the next few pranks. Braden tells Tyler what to do, whispering so Kate can't hear. They wrap string around wooden circles, pull dining room chairs into the hallway, that's also right behind Kate, and manage to use what's left of the Krazy Glue to stick them to the tops of the walls. They slip the string under the handles of medium sized buckets that Brooke brought with her, and then they pull the buckets back down and set them on the floor.

He gets Brooke to help him with his part. They go into the kitchen and find the leftover liquids and pastes. He dumps most of the soya sauce into one of the buckets, and cherry sauce in another. Brooke disappears for a moment and comes back holding up a bottle, laughing as she runs by Kate, hiding the bottle behind her back. When she shows up at his side, she holds it up for him to see, and he smiles. He fills the two other buckets with the rest of the green shampoo that dyed Kate's hair.

Kate, still stuck to the table, keeps shouting at them, screaming questions. She keeps asking what they're doing, what's so funny, if they want her to tell their mothers. They all take turns answering, singing their answers like the whole school does, in sync, at assemblies. It makes Kate groan and whisper to herself, so quiet that he can't hear her from the kitchen, but he knows she sounds upset.

They hide the full buckets when they walk by Kate again, walking sideways because that's the best way to keep Kate from seeing what they're doing. It makes Kate get angrier, repeating her questions even louder, as though she thinks they can't hear her, even though they're actually _closer _to her. He just chuckles, and ends up poking Kate's arm, tugging on short strands of hair, just to make her even more upset.

They get to Tyler and Braden and they all work together to get the actual prank set up. Tyler and Braden stand on the chairs, holding the strings. He hands the bucket up to his brother and watches while Braden threads the bucket onto the string while Tyler holds the string tight and steady and up so the buckets don't hit the floor. Brooklyn holds Tyler's chair, like she thinks her brother will fall if she doesn't. Tyler doesn't seem to mind.

They hang all four of the buckets up on their strings, tying all of them at the bottom of the walls tightly, pulling the string across the floor, forming new trip wires. Kate keeps asking from the kitchen, even though he's pretty sure she doesn't really expect an actual answer at this point. Braden ties up the last trip string around the wooden circles at the base of the wall and then smiles, satisfied. They all give each other silent thumb's ups.

They walk back over to where Kate's standing, still leaning over the table. He stands behind her, sees that the chocolate on her pants has begun to dry, becoming crusty down the seam of her sweats. He smiles and motions for Tyler to come closer, and then Tyler takes a picture of Kate's butt again, and she groans and mumbles and looks like she's going to collapse against the table. But then she doesn't, like she suddenly realizes that if she does let herself fall against the table, she'd be even more stuck.

"Seriously, guys, what are you doing?" asks Kate. Her feet are still tied together, and her hands are still stuck and she tries to turn to face them. She wiggles against the table, hops slightly in a pointless attempt to move her feet enough to actually see them, standing behind her. She's frowning.

"You'll see," he answers, smiling at her as he walks around the table so Kate can actually see him, "as soon as you get off the table." He laughs. He pulls one of the chairs away from the table and climbs onto it, kneeling on the hard wood. He reaches out and wraps his fingers around her thumb and pulls. Kate makes a hissing sound when the glue pulls at her skin. "Oops. The glue's already set. Guess you just have to find a way to get yourself unstuck," he tells, releasing her hand.

Kate lets out another big, deep breath. "Well, that's just perfect," she says, dipping her head. "Can I at least get like soapy water or something? Or are you guys just going to leave me here to, what, rip my skin off?" She looks up from the table, meets his eyes. He just shrugs and stays silent. "No? Okay, then. I've been in worse situations than this and I got out."

He grins and leans back in his chair at her words. "Really?" he asks, and Braden and Tyler and Brooke all join him around the table. Braden leans against his chair as Brooklyn climbs onto the chair next to his. And then Tyler leans against his sister's chair. "Embarrassing situations? Or just cop things? Can you tell us about them?" he asks. "Did you ever get stuck somewhere before? Like this?"

Kate shakes her head at him, leans as far back as she can with her arms glued to the table. She wobbles slightly on her feet, which are still tied together. "I might be stuck to a table, but there's absolutely no way that I am going to give you _more _ammo to use against me," she says. Her eyebrows pinch together in the middle, go up at the edges. "Did you really think I would?"

He smiles and shakes his head. "Nope," he tells her. And then he pushes himself up and onto his knees again, curls his fingers around the tables edge, careful to avoid where he put the glue. "But I know how I can make you," he adds. He lifts his hand up into the air slowly, and Kate follows it with her eyes. He presses his three fingers to the back of her hand, which is raised off the table, and presses gently. She fights. "I could get you even more stuck. I bet you can guess how much harder it would be to get off the table if your hands were even more stuck."

"I'm pretty sure I'm stronger than you," says Kate. He grins and shakes his head, presses six of his fingers, three from each hand, to the back her hand and pushes hard. Her hand shakes underneath his, but she's not strong enough, he stops right before her hand touches the glue. "Fine," she says, and he pulls his fingers away. "I got stuck, uh, handcuffed to my bed once, and Alexis found me like that."

He pinches his eyebrows together. "Why were you handcuffed to your bed?" he asks. Tyler elbows him in the arm and wiggles his eyebrows, pointing to Kate's face. Her cheeks are all bright red, her eyes locked on the table. He grins in realization. "Oh… You were _naked!_" he points out, and Kate's cheeks turn even redder, confirming his statement. "And Alexis is Rick's daughter. Your stepdaughter walked in on you naked and cuffed to the bed!"

Kate looks up at him, still blushing, smiling like she's shy. "Yes, okay, my stepdaughter walked in on me in a...compromising position," she admits. "You happy? I've been embarrassed before, a whole lot worse than this, being glued to a table. _This _is nothing." She smiles a little wider, like she's happy with what she said. "So you guys can stop being so satisfied and just… You know what? Just go watch TV or something while I get myself unstuck from this table."

"Fine," he responds, and then he hops off the chair and walks into the living room, his friends and brother following closely behind.

* * *

It takes Kate a long, long time to get herself off the table. Brooklyn and Braden are watching TV in the living room, two episodes of _Phineas and Ferb _that play back to back, while he and Tyler sit on the floor and watch Kate. His back is pressed against one side of the doorway, and Tyler is sitting across from him, their knees pulled up in front of them. Tyler is doing something on his iPod, while he, himself, focuses of Kate.

When she first starts trying to get herself unstuck, he can't even see what she's doing. He can only see her face and her arms. Her teeth are biting her lip _hard_ and she's staring at her hands. Her legs are straight, the blue jump rope still tied around her ankles. She tilts her head to one side, bites into her lip so hard that her skin turns white, and then tilts her head to the other side and does it again, staring at her hands the whole time.

She lets out a cry of victory that has both him and Tyler looking up, Tyler from his iPod, he, himself, from the jump rope on the floor. But he can't see anything from where he's sitting, so he stands up so he can see her hands, each of her fingers. Kate's arms are still stuck to the table, so are most of her fingers. Only the pointer finger of her right hand is free, but she looks really happy about it.

He sits back down and turns towards the living room. The cry of victory that Kate released has caught Braden and Brooklyn's attention, too, and they're leaning over the back of the couch, ignoring Candace's rants about her little brothers, to look at him. Without saying a word, he holds up his right pointer finger and wiggles it in the air, silently telling them that that's what Kate got free of the glue. Brooke looks confused, but Braden catches on and explains it to her.

It goes on like that for a long time. Kate does whatever has her so focused on her hands and biting her lower lip and then she gets another finger free. She does her entire right hand first, and then flexes her wrist up so that her hand doesn't touch the glue again. It looks like it hurts, and she keeps rotating her wrist like she's loosening the muscles there. And then she frees her entire left hand, flexing that wrist, too.

Once both her hands are free, she lets out a deep breath, letting her head fall forward. It sounds like she's tired, like she just did a really hard workout, like his Mom does when she gets off the treadmill they have in their basement. She wiggles her legs a little bit, but the jump rope keeps her from moving her feet enough to actually loosen the muscles of her knees. She twists her wrists and takes more deep breaths and then turns to them.

"Enjoying the show?" she asks, but neither one of them answer. "Because I think it would be really boring to watch. I mean, I'm just standing here, slowly getting my fingers and hands unstuck. I bet the TV show Braden and Brooklyn are watching is much more interesting." She slowly and barely manages to point towards the living room with her right hand, her hand quickly springing back so all her fingers are pointing at the ceiling again.

He smiles at her. "I'm fine," he answers. "You're actually pretty fun to watch. Do you know that you bite your lip when you're concentrating? And when you try to wiggle your legs, you look _really _funny." She tilts her head at him at his words, raising her brows like she doesn't think he's telling the truth. He just smiles at her. "Go on, keep going," he tells her, "you still have two arms stuck to the table."

And she does. She starts trying to work her arms free, first the right one. Now, because her arm is bigger than her fingertip, he can actually tell what she's doing. She's making small circles with her arm and he's pretty sure she's pulling up, but just a little, just to try and get her arm free of the glue. She focuses all over again, eyes locked on her arm as she spins it in circles.

But now, because her arm is much bigger than a fingertip, it makes her whole body rotate. Her legs and her hips and both her arms. She stumbles over the jump rope a couple times, falling forward, mumbling curse words as her belly presses against the table. Luckily for her, the glue is dry, because her tank top has now ridden up and over to the very bottom of her stomach and _that's _the part of her that`s pressed against the table and he has a feeling she really doesn't want her belly stuck to the table, too.

It takes a _really _long time for Kate to get her arm out of the glue. She winces and hisses at what he can only guess is pain and takes breaks and long, slow breaths. She looks tired, exhausted and actually like she's getting a workout, but he doesn't know why. Twirling your arm in circles doesn't sound all that hard, and she's a cop. She should be able to do this without getting tired, but she is.

Her elbow pops off the table, finally, and Kate lets out a loud cheer and a big sigh of relief. She collapses back against the table, resting her arm back on the now dried glue. And then she stands back up, a little straighter now that she has one free arm, pulls her tank top back into place, the bottom of it reaching her hips, and turns to face him. She smiles like she just won something. He smiles back to tell her that she's not out of the woods yet.

She's about halfway through her left arm when Braden comes to join them. He motions for his twin brother to lean down so he can whisper in Braden's ear. Quietly, so Kate can't hear, he tells his brother that he should go get the frog from their bedroom, and Tyler goes to get his backpack, pulls the Penny Board out of it and sets it on the floor quietly. The wheels make soft sounds when they roll across the floor, but Kate is so focused on getting her arm free that she doesn't notice. It works out for the best.

Kate is rolling her elbow against the table when Braden comes running down the stairs, his one hand making a cup, the other covering it. Between his twin brother's fingers he can see a sliver of slimy green skin, glistening in the light. Braden smiles at him, holds the frog out, and he, himself, motions for his brother to follow him as they walk side by side into the dining room.

Kate's elbow is almost free when he leans across the table, Braden standing right next to him. He pokes his finger against the skin of Kate's elbow, poking his super short nail between her skin and the glue. It makes her wince and then she tries to tug her elbow away from the table, away from his hand, and that makes her hiss. He smiles and lets out a short laugh before pulling his hand away.

"We have a surprise for you," he tells her. She rolls her elbow against the table again and again and again, actions slow and focused and he frowns when she doesn't react. He pokes his finger at her elbow again, and Kate tries to pull away, but it doesn't make her elbow pull away from his finger, and she hisses all over again. She finally looks up at him and he smiles. "Don't you wanna know what it is?"

"Well, lets see, you guys have _surprised me_ with a frog, buckets of food on my head, blaring music, ice cold water and dyed shampoo, among others," she says, stilling the movements of her elbow. He laughs at the memories, remembering how the frog's tongue got stuck on her neck, how the black food mixture had leaked into her mouth, the look the librarian gave her because of her green hair. "So, actually, no, I _don't_ want to know what your surprise is."

She looks back down at her elbow, twirls it against the table once, twice, three times and then lets out a sigh. She looks back up at him and Braden for a moment before looking back down at her elbow. She rolls it only once this time, and then pulls gently, making the glue pull on her skin. She winces. But then she's saying something he can't hear and still staring at where her elbow is stuck to the table and next thing he knows, he's tapping Braden's shoulder and his brother is letting the frog loose and Kate's elbow is unstuck and bleeding a little. The frog is jumping on her and, because of the jump rope around her legs, she falls flat onto her back.

Kate's arms are still tied together, even though the rope around her wrists is actually pretty loose. When she falls, her arms fly back with the rest of her and her hands hit her right in the face. That makes them all laugh. Kate lets out a big breath, mouth open wide and eyes looking almost panicked. She pulls her hands away from her face and presses them against her chest, even though the rope makes it hard.

The frog jumps off her chest and onto her legs, letting out a croaking sound. Then it tries to jump away from Kate, but Braden catches it before it can. Kate lets out a hissing sound and he sees her trying to take a big, deep breath. And then, somehow, she manages to pull herself up and into a sitting position. Her hands are still pressed against her chest and she's breathing heavy.

Braden lets go of the frog again, and with a loud ribbit, the frog jumps out from between his twin's hands and right onto Kate. It lands on her chest, first, on the back of her hand, and then tumbles from there down onto her thighs, in between her legs and her stomach. It makes Kate squirm, the ropes around her ankles and wrists making her look like a funny snake or something. Since she can barely move, she ends up squirming until she loses her balance and falls onto her side, lying down again. And then she flops onto her stomach.

Kate lets out a huff and then they all start laughing again. The frog has, somehow, jumped out of the way and away from Kate, but then it jumps back towards Kate and right onto her butt. It hops once, twice, three times, the entire time staying on her butt. Kate's arms are still tied together and stretched up above her head. She wiggles against the floor, like she's a wiggly worm, trying to get away from the frog. But she barely moves. Only her arms actually move, but that's not enough to get away from the frog.

He smiles, an idea coming to his head. Quickly, he runs over to the corner of the room, where Brooke put her third jump rope. He wonders why she brought three jump ropes to Kate and Rick's place, but doesn't dwell on it. It's worked out for the best, considering the fact that they used one to tie up her feet, one to tie up her hands and now he has a plan for this one.

He walks back over to Kate and flings the jump rope over his shoulder. It stings when it hits his back, but he's still smiling. "Don't worry, Kate!" he tells her, and he tugs gently on the two plastic handles in his hand, "I got it." And then he quickly pulls the jump rope over his shoulder and flings it down with a hard flick of his wrist. It hits Kate's butt, barely misses the frog. Kate gasps and then hisses. The frog hops away and Braden runs after it.

"Brody!" shouts Kate, bending her back so she can look at him. She manages, just barely, to press her palms against the ground, pushes herself up like in that yoga pose his Mom does. "That was… That was _so _inappropriate!" she manages, and then she falls back against the floor, her hands wedged between her chest and the floor, her eyes locked on the loop of Brooke's jump rope.

"I was just trying to get the frog, Kate," he tells her, faking innocence. Kate groans against the floor and rolls her eyes at him. He smiles down at her. "It was on your butt. I thought you wanted if off." He shrugs and rocks forward on his toes. He watches as Kate lifts her head off the ground and turns so she's looking away from him. He presses his toes against her knee and rocks her to the side. She groans, mumbling something he can't hear.

Kate wiggles on the floor again, but that doesn't do anything. He just stands there and watches, because she looks really, _really _funny when she wiggles like that. She eventually stops wiggling like that, rests back against the floor and takes a few long, deep breaths. She tries to roll over, onto her back, but without her arms and legs, all she does is wiggle more until she gives up and collapses back against the floor.

That's when she starts moving her arms instead, rubbing her wrists together almost exactly like she rolled her fingertips against the table. He smiles and motions for Tyler to get ready for the next step of their plan. Braden comes back into the dining room, palms once again closed around the frog. Tyler stands up from where he was sitting, laughing, and grabs his Penny Board. Brooklyn just stays lying on her side in the corner of the room, laughing her head off, tugging at her braid.

The slow roll of Kate's wrists eventually allows her to shift her hands enough for her to be able to bend her wrist enough to wrap her fingers around the blue, rubber rope. She tugs on it once and then twice, loosening the loop that presses her wrists together. She pulls her wrists apart over and over again, rolling them around the inside of the jump rope until it's stretched enough for her to slip her hands through it. She pulls her right hand out of the jump rope loop first, and then the rope falls to floor, off her left wrist.

Kate lets out a sigh when she's free, rotates her wrists and then presses her palms against the floor and pushes herself up. She's strong enough to push her entire upper body off the floor, from her shoulders to her hips, and then she manages to pull her knees up and under her, so she's kneeling on the floor, her feet still tied together. She pushes herself up, farther onto her knees, fingers still pressed against the floor. And with a weird little jump, she manages to get her feet under her, pushes herself off the floor until she's standing.

She doesn't have good balance like this, though, her feet tied tightly together, and when she first gets into a standing position, she wobbles. Her fingers catch the back of one of the chairs, the other palm pressing against the table and the dried glue. She takes a deep breath and he sees her wiggle her toes against the floor. She swipes a few strands of her hair behind her ear and then looks up at them.

Braden takes his cue and holds out his hands, the way they form a small ball making it obvious that he's once again holding the frog. They both grin up at her. Kate leans back, away from the Braden's hand, but ends up wobbling on her feet and leaning forward again to get her balance back. That puts her face right in front of Braden's hand, and her eyes go wide. Braden begins to spread his fingers, slowly and dramatically and Kate stands up straight again and slaps her hand over Braden's, keeping the frog inside his twin's palms.

"Okay," she says, speaking almost breathlessly. She sounds scared, actually _scared _of one little frog, "Let's make a deal." She smiles at Braden, her eyes darting to him like she's telling him to not say a word that could mess this up for her. He just smiles innocently, and she looks back at Braden. "You let go of that frog and let it jump on me again and I will throw it out of this apartment and let it die, okay?" she asks, making Braden's eyes go wide. His brother shakes his head quickly and Kate smiles. "_Or, _you can put that frog back in...wherever you kept it last night and I'll put it back in the park."

His brother's eyes are big and wide, and he notices a small smile coming across Braden's face. Over Kate's shoulder, he can see Brooklyn standing all the way at the end of the hallway. And, around her legs, he can see Tyler with his hand on his Penny Board, ready to adjust it the minute Kate falls, like they planned. Braden nods, smiling, protecting the frog between his hands.

It happens so quickly that, if he didn't know it was coming, he would have missed it. But Braden, with a quick jerk of his hands, sends Kate off balance all over again, her hand on the table unable to keep her from falling. Tyler rolls the Penny Board back a bit, and as Kate lands flat on her back, falling right on the board and, as Tyler releases it, her weight sends it rolling.

She hits the first string and Brooke giggles in anticipation, Braden has run to go put the frog in his bug house thing. Tyler is still kneeling on the ground watching. He, himself, watches from where he stands. The first string lets the first bucket fall, the soya sauce dumping down from it and onto Kate. It splashes across her shirt and pants and face, and some of it must land in her mouth because she spits and coughs once before taking a deep breath. She tries to stop the skateboard, pressing her hands against the floor, but the wet soya sauce makes it too slippery for her hands to stop her.

She hits the next string only seconds later, and he chuckles when he sees the green liquid begin to fall from the tilted bucket. They added water to the shampoo to make it thinner when they filled the buckets, so, even though it's thicker than the soya sauce, the green shampoo easily slips from the bucket that's holding it. It splashes on Kate's chest, some drops hitting her stomach, others landing on her face and she turns her head to the side to avoid it. Her hand flies away from the floor and she plops it down on her chest, into a pile of green shampoo.

The next string has the third bucket tipping on its side and falling over. The cherry sauce is thicker than both the soya sauce and the watered down shampoo, so it takes longer for it to actually fall out of the bucket. It lands in globs, some on the bottom of her stomach, some on her legs. The final glob lands just below her feet as she rolls by, towards the next string.

The fourth and final string tips over the fourth and final bucket, the shampoo falling from the pail. This round of dyed shampoo was watered down even more, so it's more liquidy, thinner. It falls from the bucket quickly, splashes like green water and lands on her face. It splashes across her nose, covers her closed eyes and some drips into her mouth, making her sputter and spit.

She stops rolling when her head hits the wall, not too hard, but hard enough to make a noise. He runs over to stand next to her, Tyler and Braden running with him. The frog is safe in the bug habitat now, he guesses, because Braden is using both his hands. Brooklyn, doing her part of this latest prank, grabs Kate's hand, which is not on the top her her head, and the other one, and ties them tightly together, just like her feet.

Kate tries to pull her arms away from her, so Brooke, like they planned, kneels down right behind Kate's hands. There's a little space between Kate and the wall now, since Tyler has easily wheeled her a little farther from the wall than she was before. Brooklyn kneels in that space and puts her hands over Kate's, presses her tied up wrists to the floor, using all her weight, even though that's not very much, to hold Kate in place.

He sits down right next to Kate, sees her turn to face him. The hair right at her forehead is even greener than it was before, and because she wipes it away so fast, the green on her face is all streaky like she was crying green tears. And he knows that it won't wash off very well, because he did this to his Mom once and she had to put on a _lot _of makeup and go to the hairdresser's to get her hair re-dyed.

He grins at her, even though that just makes her roll her eyes and look back up at the ceiling. And then he reaches down for the hem of her shirt. The fall onto the skateboard made the tank top ride up again, and with her hands once again tied over her head, she can't do anything to stop him. So he tugs at the bottom of her shirt and pulls it over her chest, bunches it up right above her boobs, revealing her plain white bra.

Earlier, Braden ran into the office, where Kate put away the arts and crafts supplies, and now he comes back with a few bottles of paint. He sets the bottles on the floor, one of red paint, one of blue and one of yellow, and then smiles at him. He smiles back, silently thanks his twin for following through with their plan, and then he reaches over and pops the cap of one of the bottles of red paint. He squirts a pile of paint onto the floor, despite Kate's protests. It's not as though the floor is _clean _right now, anyway.

He grins at Kate and presses his palm against the small pile of paint and it squishes under his hand, some of the red seeping between his fingers. And then he lifts his hand up and off the floor and presses one of his fingers to Kate's bare stomach. He traces a smiley face on her stomach and Kate squirms, trying to get as far away from his hand as possible.

"_Brody_," she says. "Get your hand off me!" So he does. He lifts his hand off her stomach for a moment, all the while Braden and Tyler are creating their own small piles of paint. Braden is using the blue paint and Tyler is using the yellow. He smiles and turns back to Kate. He swirls his finger in circles in front of her face. "I swear, Brody, if you touch me with that finger, I _will _tell your Mother," she threatens.

He just shrugs at her, and then he presses his hand against her boob, leaving a red handprint on her white bra. He laughs softly and squishes his palm against the paint again. Braden and Tyler each press their own handprint onto the other side of her bra, the blue and yellow paint mixing together, creating green. Kate keeps threatening them, telling them she'll tell their parents, but they keep going. He presses another red handprint, over the yellow and blue ones, and Braden and Tyler each press a handprint over his red one.

Eventually, her bra is covered in handprints. The three different colors have mixed to make green and purple and orange and brown. The white fabric is completely covered in paint, stained and dirty and he has a feeling it will probably be thrown into the garbage as soon as she takes it off. The floor is also splattered with handprints, dirty and stained with shampoo and sauce and paint. It's a filthy mess and he's pretty sure she's going to have a hard time cleaning everything up.

When the paint on the floor is finally too thin to actually make more handprints, Brooklyn releases Kate's hands and unties the jump rope around her wrists. Kate lets out a sigh, her head falling back against the floor.

* * *

Kate sends them all to the living room again as soon as her feet are untied and she's up off the floor and standing up instead of lying down. She's angry as she pulls her shirt down over her chest and stomach even though her bra is still covered in wet paint. She stares at the dirty floor, kicks at it with her bare foot, presses her toes against the smudges of paint and green dye.

They scurry into the living room and sit down on the couch, watching another episode of _Adventure Time _as they hear the water running in the kitchen, the slosh of water in a bucket, the squish of the wet mop against the floor. Every single time one of them gets up, but Kate tells them to sit back down, only letting Brooklyn actually get up off the couch in order to get to the bathroom.

She eventually comes out of the kitchen and dining room. The paint they pressed against her chest just barely reaches past the top of her tank top, only a few spots visible above the hem. Her hair is still dark green and is pulled into yet another messy bun. Her face is green, too, streaked like she was crying, all across her nose and forehead and eyes and around her mouth.

"Okay. I am going to take a quick shower to get all _this _off. You guys will stay _right here _and wait for me to get out of the shower, and then I'll call the restaurant for dinner," she tells them, crossing her arms over her chest and giving them a _don't mess with me right now _look, like his Mom often gives his aunt Carly. "If I hear _any _of you come _anywhere near _my bathroom, we will spend the rest of the day sitting on the couch doing _nothing_."

She doesn't even give them the chance to answer, turning quickly towards her bedroom and walking towards the door. When she walks past him, he can see the crusty chocolate that is still on the butt part of her pants. It makes him laugh, but then she shoots him a look over her shoulder, matching the one she sent them earlier, and when he stops laughing, she turns around and keeps walking towards her bedroom.

As soon as she's out of sight, a door, which he guesses is the one to her bathroom, closes, and they all break out into laughter. He doubles over on the couch, arms wrapped around his stomach, head pressed against one of the couch cushions. His brother is leaning back over an armrest and Brooklyn soon finds herself lying on her stomach in the big chair next to the couch. Tyler is leaning back against the middle of the couch, one hand pressed against his stomach, the other pressed against his chest.

"I can hear you!" shouts Kate from the bathroom, right before the sound of running water fills the living room. They start laughing again, pretty sure that she can't hear them over the sound of her shower. Sure enough, she doesn't scream at them again, so he guesses that she actually can't hear them. So they keep laughing and laughing and laughing until he suddenly realizes something.

"Kate's gonna make us sit here all evening, after supper, anyway, right?" he asks, and Braden nods. He's pretty sure Braden's right, since Braden's the smartest one out of all of them. "So, why should we just sit here and not do anything? We could totally get her _again_, since she's already going to punish us. Come on. I have an idea," he tells his friends and brother, and then he hops off the couch and quickly but quietly walks into Kate's bedroom.

He starts by twisting the doorknob of the bathroom door, smiling when he finds the door unlocked. And then he turns away from the bathroom and opens the other door in the bedroom. The room, about the same size as a normal bathroom, is lined with hanging clothes, mostly suits and button-down shirts that he guesses belong to both Kate and Rick. He easily finds a hanger that's made of loops, each loop wrapped around a scarf. He pulls one of the scarfs, a grey one, off the hanger and holds it tightly in his hand.

He walks back out of the room and holds it up for Tyler, Braden and Brooklyn to see. They all smile at him, and Tyler walks over to the bathroom door. Slowly, he pushes the door open and walks in. Kate doesn't even react, which surprises him as he follows Tyler. He slips the scarf through the handle of the shower's foggy glass door after gently sliding said door open a crack, and ties the other end around the towel rod nearby. It holds the door open just enough for him to slip his hand in and reach the water controls, but keeps it from opening enough for Kate to get out.

Tyler climbs onto the closed toilet, holding his iPod up in his hand. That's when Kate notices that they're here, turning in the shower to face the partially opened door. He smiles at her, slips his hand into the small crack between the door and the tiled wall and grabs the twisty handle that controls the water temperature. It's just like his shower at home, so he knows how it works. He pulls the handle almost all the way towards him, and Kate jumps as cold water hits her back.

He waits a few minutes as Kate jumps around in the shower, presses herself against the tiles and the glass, hissing at the cold and wincing when the glass makes the view of her butt perfectly clear. She's practically dancing in the shower, trying to get away from the cold, and Tyler is filming it all with his iPod, so they'll be able to watch this again later.

After a couple minutes, he turns the handle the other way, almost all the way, and Kate hisses as hot water hits her back instead of the cold. She presses her back against the tiles at the opposite end of the shower, and he guesses that the tiles are probably cold, so they probably feel good against her back. But the really hot water, now creating extra steam inside the shower, is still hitting her stomach and the backs of her hands, her palms pressed against her chest to hide her boobs.

He flips the water to cold again as Braden and Brooklyn slip into the bathroom. They each take a seat on the edge of the big bathtub, laughing as they watch Kate's jumping and jerking and dancing form through the foggy shower door. When the cold water comes again, she walks back under the stream of water, letting out a hiss then a sigh when the cold water hits her red skin. She pulls at the door, but the scarf keeps it from opening, and she groans, loud enough for him to hear over the water.

"This is _not _funny," she hisses through the door. He just smiles at her through the glass and flips the handle back into the _hot _position, and Kate lets out a scream as she scrambles away from the water. Braden and Brooklyn burst out laughing, Tyler struggling to keep the iPod steady as he films her reactions to the changing water temperature. "_Not _funny!" she shouts again.

"I think it's very funny," he tells her, laughing loud enough for her to hear. He sees her try to reach up for Tyler's iPod, but Tyler is tall enough, standing on the toilet, to keep it out of her reach. She groans at Tyler and gives up on getting the iPod, instead putting her hand over his on the water temperature handle. She manages to force him to return the water temperature to warm, instead of hot or cold. "You do realize you're still stuck in there, right?"

She grumbles. "No shit, Sherlock," she mumbles softly, loud enough for him to hear, but he's pretty sure it's quiet enough for the others to not be able to hear her. He decides not to mention that Kate said a bad word, instead paying attention to the fact that one of her hands releases his. She tries to reach the handle of the door, but can't bend her wrist the right way in order to reach it. But still, the fact that she's no longer holding the handle in place allows him to flip it to hot, instead of warm.

He's not sure if it's desperation to get out from under the hot water, or simply the strength that comes with training to be a cop, but somehow, as Kate pulls on the door, she manages to get the knot around the towel rod undone, the door sliding open quickly. He laughs at the fact that he can see her naked _again_, until she reaches past him to pull the towel off the towel rod. She wraps it around her body and steps out of the shower, flipping the shower off as she steps out of the glass chamber.

"Living room," she says, her voice leaving no room to argue, "now!"

And even though he's not actually scared of Kate, he agrees, leading the other three out of the room. He plops down on one end of the couch. Braden takes the other and Tyler takes the middle. Brooklyn climbs onto the couch, too, leaning over her brother. And as Kate gets ready to come in here and punish them, they watch the video of her in the shower over and over and over again.

* * *

**Thank you to la z boy and all my readers. One more chapter and then the epilogue after this :)**


	11. Chapter 10

**Katherine Beckett.**

* * *

She all but slams the door shut behind the children once they all file out of the bathroom. Her left hand shoves the door hard and the right holds the towel tightly around her body, and then her fingers flip the lock on the door. She curls her fingers around the doorknob and lets out a sigh of sheer frustration, tilting her head forward and towards the door, forcing herself to take a few deep breaths in order to calm her heart, which is racing from anger.

Eventually, once she finds herself calm again, she turns away from the door and towards the mirror instead. Her eyes instantly meet the ones of her reflection, land on the furrow of her brows and the creases on her forehead. She looks as angry as she feels. She forces herself to calm down even more, forces her brows to tilt upwards again, relieving the creases on her forehead, making her look...well, less angry.

And then she takes in the rest of her reflection, the green streaks that stain her face, under her eyes and over the bridge of her nose and down the dips below her cheek bones. It's not as dark as her hair, perhaps because the dye doesn't soak into skin as well as it does into hair. She's not sure, but she's glad. This, as hard as it will be, she can cover with makeup.

Her chest is also stained green, dark in the dips of her collarbones, a line down between her breasts, disappearing beneath the dark towel. She probably could have washed a little more of it off, given the time and opportunity, but now, she knows, it's too late. The dye has soaked in and she'll just have to wait for it to eventually fade, washing her stained skin multiple times a day. She'll never hear the end of _this _from Castle.

Her clothing, sitting on the floor, is most definitely ruined. Soya and cherry sauce and dyed shampoo soaked into the fabric, chocolate crusted on the back of her pants. She bends down to retrieve them and stuffs them into a small garbage can in the bathroom's vanity, hoping, _really _hoping that Castle doesn't notice them. She even goes as far as arranging the articles in the garbage can, trying to make it look as inconspicuous as humanly possible.

Once satisfied, she stands up straight again, stares at her reflection for a long while. She then reaches down and pulls one of the vanity's drawers open, retrieving her moderately sized makeup bag from within it. She reaches into it and, from the very bottom of the bag, retrieves the concealer she rarely finds herself using. But today, as much as she hates it, she knows a layer of her usual powdered foundation won't do anything to hide the green taint of her cheeks.

She dabs spots of concealer across most of her face, over her nose and cheeks and forehead and chin, and when she rubs it in with the pads of her fingers, she finds herself wincing at her own reflection. She looks like those girls she constantly judges, a thick layer of makeup caked onto her face, making her look so dreadfully fake that she's actually scared of going into work like this tomorrow. She can only imagine the teasing comments Ryan and Espo would make. So she looks away and brushes a thin layer of foundation over the thick layer of concealer, trying to make it look somewhat more acceptable. It doesn't help.

She pulls on a new pair of cotton panties and slips on a sports bra, black, this time, instead of white. She pulls on a long-sleeved shirt that she's had for years and only ever wears when she goes out for runs in the fall, when the air is crisp and the wind is harsh. She also pulls on a pair of black pants, smoothes them over her hips in order to avoid pantie lines, which she fears the kids could make fun of. She slips on a pair of black socks and throws her hair into a messy bun with a black elastic that's sitting on the vanity's counter.

She's almost scared to leave the bathroom, silently and stupidly wishing there was a peephole in the bathroom door so she could see if they're on the other side. But there's no peephole so, as stupid as it makes her feel, she finds herself pressing her ear against the door, listening for any sound that would indicate movement or children on the other side, inside her bedroom.

She rolls her eyes at herself when she eventually realizes that this is _stupid _and she should just open the door and walk out. So she does, even though she finds herself opening the door slowly. She pokes her head through the crack in the door, realizes that her bedroom is, in fact, empty and feels a sigh of relief escape her chest before she can find herself once again reminding herself that she's being crazy for being so scared of four children, as annoying and...well, scary as they are.

She walks into the living room and, sure enough, finds all the kids sitting around watching _Adventure Time, _seemingly calm, as though the past day and half hasn't actually happened and it's all been a phobia-induced dream of hers reminding her of the very reason she's apprehensive about having children of her own. But she accepts it, knowing that them being quiet isn't necessarily a good thing, but it's probably better than anything else, at this point.

Deciding not to bother them, she walks into the kitchen, hesitantly runs her fingers over the seat of one of the bar stools and, realizing that it's not covered in glue, sits down. She pulls her phone out of her pocket and pulls up the list she created earlier, the one with everyone's favorite cheeseburger toppings. She reads it over once, twice, and then realizes she probably won't remember it, so she stands back up and grabs a notebook from one of the drawers, along with a pen, and sits back down.

Quickly, she scribbles each of the specified toppings onto the page of the notepad, her writing messy and probably only readable to her, but that's really all that matters right now. She quickly finds the number to the nearby burger joint in her phone and dials, pressing her phone to one ear and listening for the children with the other, until a young man answers on the other end and she's telling him her order, distracted by her fear that the children might sneak up on her. She barely registers that it will be about twenty minutes before they have her order delivered, and she quickly thanks the young man, almost uttering the wrong name.

Once the call is ended, she crumples up the notebook page and, as she walks back towards the living room, finds herself tossing the paper into the trash can. She walks back into the living room, her phone still clutched in her palm, pressed against her thigh. She takes a seat in one of the chairs at the end of the room opposite all of the children and quickly swipes her thumb across the phone's screen to unlock.

She spends the next twenty minutes listening to the sound of children's laughter, as terrifying as it is now, considering how the past day has gone, the voices of cartoon characters and dealing with the aftermath of the undergarment picture fiasco. She has a few new responses she has to deal with, one from Gates, to which she has _absolutely _no idea what to respond with. In the end, she decides to just explain everything tomorrow, with Castle there as her witness and her makeup evidence in and of itself that she spent a weekend with rambunctious kids.

And when the doorbell rings, she jumps up from her seat, walks around the back of the couch and goes to answer it, paying with cash and taking the five styrofoam containers from the young man, pressing them against her chest. She thanks him before watching him turn and walk down the hall before closing the door and turning back to where the kids are sitting. Surprisingly, they're paying her no attention.

She walks into the dining room and sets the styrofoam containers on the table, which is still covered in dried glue that, despite her best efforts, she couldn't get off without ruining the table's nice finish that she _really _likes. But, since the glue is dry, she decides that it's fine if they eat on it.

She opens each of the styrofoam containers and quickly pulls the top bun off each of the burgers, checking the contents on each one of them. She places each burger in it's place, in front of the chair that each child has taken to over the day they've been here. She places her own burger at the head of the table, and then rips the top off of each styrofoam container to make the table look less cluttered. And then, satisfied, she leaves the dining room. It only occurs to her now how mother-like what she just did had been.

The kids whine for a moment, saying something about how their episode isn't done yet, before they relent and get up, filing into the dining room one by one. She watches until Tyler disappears into the dining room, throwing a glance over his shoulder, before following, taking slow and hesitant steps because, honestly, she's _still _scared of these children.

Each child sits down at their respective seats, examining their hamburgers for themselves, just to make sure that they each have the right meal. She smiles when they each seem satisfied, falling back into their seats, and then they all, in perfect tandem, turn towards her. She smiles at them, pulls her seat away from the table and goes to sit down before noticing that they're all smiling back at her, and realization hits her.

Sure enough, when she looks down at the chair, there's a small plate of pasta and tomato sauce on the seat, right where she would have sat down. Looking up at the kids, a smile pulling at her features, she swipes the plate off her chair and slides it onto the table, sending it drifting towards the end, where Brooklyn and Braden are sitting. The kids faces all take on a caught look that has her smiling even wider, and she finds herself walking around the table, swiping each of the hamburgers away, and then setting them all on the counter.

She takes a seat in her chair, curling her toes around the chair's legs, and leans forward, settling her weight on her elbows and forearms, thankful that, this time, the table is not sticky with glue. She grins at the four kids, showcasing her pride at having caught them before she had yet another ruined pair of pants, before this weekend was the cause of a long shopping trip to get new clothes to replace the ruined ones. And they all settle back into their chairs, looking scared, _actually _scared for the first time since they showed up at her door.

"Okay," she tells them, "I am going to speak and you guys are going to listen." She leans back slightly, so she can actually see them all. "I get it, okay? I get that it's fun to mess with a person of authority. I've been there. I've done that. I've skipped classes and broken rules. I've played pranks of my parents. Heck, I got married in _Vegas _behind my parents backs, so drunk that I didn't even remember it," she tells them, "which I don't advise, by the way.

"Anyway, my point is, I get it. I know you guys are having fun pranking me and that is the _only _reason I haven't called Castle and your mothers yet. But, you know what, I also know that there's consequences. Like… Well, like being married and not knowing it. Like being grounded and almost failing courses, detention and a whole lot of other stuff you don't want to deal with," she continues, sighing as she leans forward again.

"Trust me, guys," she says, her voice softer now, "the fun is great in the moment, but the consequences aren't worth it. Sure, it's fun and yes, sometimes it _is_ worth it. I still get the urge to go against people today, and trust me, I've played pranks on people. You can just ask Castle. I once had him convinced he was cursed by a mummy," she tells them, and they laugh at the mental images that must conjure. She smiles at that.

"We loosened one of the legs on his chair and he fell right on his butt, in the middle of the precinct, in front of everyone we work with," she tells them. "And we loosened a screw in the espresso machine at work and it almost exploded on him. He screamed like a girl," she continues, smiling at the memories of their early days herself, because, really, every time she thinks about this, she's reminded of how far they've come.

"Really?" asks Brooklyn, and she nods. "Miss Kate?" She nods again. "Do you really still want to play pranks?" She nods once again, a smile creeping across her face as one comes across Brooklyn's face as well. "Do you want to play one on Rick? Because then we can play one on Rick and Elizabeth and Mom, and then we'll all be happy, and you won't even be pranked," she suggests.

She smiles. "You guys promise not to prank me again?" she asks, and all the kids nod, in perfect tandem once again. "Well then, I think we have a prank to plan."

* * *

Turns out, having a husband with the same hobbies as a five year old does have it's advantages, besides having an innocence in your life that was never there before, and glee that fills every room. There's more to it than watching annoying, childish cartoons and listening to dirty jokes and having to deal with having conversations with someone who has practically _no _attention span.

Nope, turns out that it does, sometimes, work out for the best. Because today, she finds herself digging through the cupboards of her kitchen in order to find something they can use for the prank they plan on playing on Castle, Sam and Elizabeth. Most of the things in her kitchen have already been used, the whipped cream and just about every other condiment they had in the house, mainly, so she finds herself struggling to find something they can use. But she's bordering on desperate to do this with the kids, if only to feel like she actually _did _make some progress with them over the course of the day.

So, when she opens one of the highest cupboards and finds a small, colorful plastic bulb, which her fingers close around, she can't help but hope. And when she pulls it out of the cupboard, a smile, equal parts satisfaction and mischief, tugs at her lips. It's one of those cheap, dollar store water balloon kits, the plastic bulb glued to the cardboard filled with thin, colorful balloons, an extension for the tap enveloped in another piece of plastic, right next to the bulb of balloons.

She's not sure when he bought this, or when the last time he went to the dollar store was, but she does know with absolute certainty that water balloons are right up her husbands alley. Why he's been hiding them in the highest cupboard in their kitchen is another question to which she has no answer, but she knows, right now, that his childish nature and enjoyment of silly things is working to her advantage.

She checks her phone quickly, smiling as she finds no new text messages on it. Castle had texted her earlier telling her that he had gone out to get some supper with Sam and Elizabeth. To catch up, he had said. He also promised to tell her when they left the restaurant, and when they got to this building, to the lobby downstairs, so she could make sure everything looks...presentable for when Elizabeth and Sam show up. She's pretty sure _this_ is not what he had planned.

She quickly clicks her phone off, setting it back on the counter, along with the water balloon kit. She then leaves the kitchen, pulls the closet door open and finds the mop bucket she cleaned earlier, after the _first _bucket prank. She grabs it and brings it back to the kitchen, setting it on the counter, next to the sink, opposite of her phone and the water balloon kit.

The kids are in the living room, trying to come up with a plan of their own, and she takes a second to make sure that they are, in fact, still talking about Castle and their mothers and not about _her. _Though she can barely hear them, barely make out any of the words spoken between the children in her living room, she does hear Elizabeth's name, and that allows her to let out a sigh of relief and go back to the task at hand.

She rips the thin plastic off the cardboard backing, careful to keep all the balloons within their plastic casing without making a mess. She balances the curved plastic on it's rounded peak before pulling the second piece of plastic off the cardboard, the tap extension popping free with the action. It clatters onto the counter, and she catches it between her fingers, reads the instructions before managing to attach it to her tap.

She pulls one of the balloons out of the plastic casing, tugs it over the plastic tap extension, making sure it's tight, sealed around the plastic. She pinches it in place anyway, turning the water on with her other hand, keeping the pressure low so the balloon doesn't burst. It fills slowly, fills with water until the plastic is pulled rather tight, translucent around the water.

She does it again and again and again until her mop bucket is full and there's only a few balloons left in the plastic bulb. She ends up just throwing the other balloons out and into the trash, along with the cheap plastic tap extension and the plastic bulb and the cardboard backing. She then goes back over to the counter, over to where the bucket full of colorful balloons filled with water sits. She lifts it off the counter and carries it into the living room, setting it down behind the couch so the children can't see.

"Any luck?" she asks and the kids all turn to face her. Now, she can see a piece of construction paper sitting on the floor in the middle of the circle the four children create. It's covered in what looks like scribbles, at least to her, since she can't actually decipher an image. She looks back up from the paper and sees all the kids looking up at her, looking disappointed with themselves.

"No," says Braden. "I used most of my supplies in the pranks we pulled on _you_. Plus, we already stole like _everything _from your kitchen." He frowns, holds the paper up for her to see, and she's even more sure now that it's just a bunch of scribbles, the evidence of their failed attempt at coming up with a plan. "See?" he asks. "We got _nothing. _Did you?"

She smiles, reaching behind the couch to pull the bucket into view. "Actually," she says, "I did." And then she slowly tilts the bucket towards them so they can see its contents. "What do you guys think about water balloons?" she asks. "Because I have a bucket full of them." She grins, smiling at the children as they smile back at her, eyes wide in wonder that only kids can have in regards to a bucket of water balloons.

"_Awesome,_" says Brody, already getting up and off the ground, and she can't help the rush of pride and satisfaction that washes over her in response to his reaction.

* * *

She's sitting in the armchair with her phone in her hand when it vibrates, the screen lighting up with a new text message alert. She swipes her thumb across the screen, unlocking it and the complete text message appears on her screen, encircled by a blue speech bubble. _**We're here. Everything good up there? **_it reads, and she can almost hear the hint of concern that his voice would hold if he was actually speaking the question. _**Yup**_, she replies before dropping her phone onto the coffee table and turning to the kids.

"You guys ready?" she asks, her fingers already closing around the mop bucket's handle. "Rick and your mothers are here," she adds, smiling, "so we should go and get ready to catch them outside the elevator." She stands up, pulling the big but rather light bucket up with her, and the children follow her lead until they're all standing in the hallway outside the elevator door.

She hands each of the kids a water balloon, quietly reminding them not to squeeze too hard or the balloons will pop. Brooklyn has a pink one, which she cradles against her chest like she's protecting it until the time comes to throw it. Braden has an orange one which he cradles between his palms as he watches the elevator doors like they're a science experiment. Tyler has a green one, which he holds in one hand, his arm hanging loosely at his side. And Brody has a yellow one, with which he practices throwing, and she half expects the balloon to slip from his hand and splash against the wall. She grabs a purple one for herself, holds it in one hand and waits.

They planned this all ahead of time. They'll wait outside the elevator doors until they eventually open to, most likely, Castle, Sam and Elizabeth. Then, catching the trio off guard, they'll pelt them with water balloons. Braden and Brody would target their mother, Elizabeth. Brooklyn and Tyler would target their own mother, Sam. And she would be responsible for getting Castle. That's their plan, not all that detailed, but easy to execute all the same. Now, all they have to do is wait.

It doesn't take all that long, even though she's fairly certain the children are getting impatient. The elevator's familiar ding rings softly, barely audible, since it's intended for the occupants of the elevator and not the people waiting outside. She motions with a swirl of her finger for the kids to get ready, and they do, Brody posing dramatically as Brooklyn looks like she's preparing to launch her own balloon with a two-handed underhand toss.

The second the elevator doors are completely open, water balloons go flying. Brooklyn's grazes Sam's shoulder, bursting at the slight contact, whereas Tyler's hits his mother square in the chest. Braden's balloon lands on Elizabeth's thighs as Brody's hits her right in the face, leaving Elizabeth shocked and sputtering. She launches her own balloon with a slight flick of her wrist and hits Castle's shoulder, which has his eyes widening at her.

Sam ends up catching Brooklyn around the waist. She watches as Sam quickly pulls her little girl against her, fingers drifting over Brooke's sides until the young girl is lying on the floor, wiggling as a result of her mother's relentless tickling. They're both getting wet, Sam's hair dripping down and onto Brooke, Sam still getting pelted by Tyler's well-aimed throws.

Elizabeth has been backed into a corner by her kids. Brody, she guesses, is the kind of kid who whips the ball during gym class, because he has now taken over the throwing as Braden hands him balloons from the bucket. Water soaks the floor around Elizabeth's feet, and her face is drenched like she went bobbing for apples, because that seems to be Brody's favorite target. The balloons he throws that don't land on Elizabeth's face hit her chest, instead.

She shakes her head and reaches down to retrieve another balloon from the quickly-emptying bucket. The second she stands upright again, a balloon hits her right between the shoulder blades, drenching her shirt. She turns on her heel and throws her own balloon, hitting her husband in the center of his chest this time. His eyes widen almost comically, and he takes a step towards her, towards the bucket of balloons.

She turns around again, laughing, bends down and grabs two balloons, an orange one and a green one, from the bucket, about to turn around and hit him with them when she feels his arms wrap around her waist, pulling her against him. His one hand trails up her stomach, presses against the base of her sternum, pulls her back up and against his chest, his other hand wrapped around her hip, holding her in place.

She manages to reach back as his lips press against her neck, and it suddenly feels like they're going to risk being.._.inappropriate_ in front of the children. So, to lighten to mood, she flings her left hand back and pops the balloon on the top of his head, making it burst, soak into the strands of his hair, drip down onto her shoulder. The water dribbled down her shoulder and chest, over the ridge of her collarbone and down between her breasts as he laughs against her skin.

He pulls away and his fingers brush across her neck, and she suddenly realizes that that's exactly where the frog left it's mark, the bruise that looks a little too much like a hickey. She clamps her finger over her neck, but it's too late. The water has taken some of her concealer down with it, washed away the layer of makeup she had used to hide the bruise for this very reason. And now, Castle has seen it.

His laughter bubbles up from within him, rumbles against her back. "What's this?" he asks, and his fingers pinch her side, making her jerk away from his hand involuntarily. But his other palm is holding her in place. "Did you go and get yourself some loving while I was gone, Kate?" She hears his overdramatised sigh, his hand releasing her as he presses it against his chest, "I'm wounded. I thought you loved me more than that." His voice is light, though, and filled with humor, making her roll her eyes at him.

"It was that stupid frog," she mumbles, at first not sure that he understood, but then he starts laughing and laughing and _laughing _behind her, practically doubling over as she, unimpressed, watches Braden and Brody and Tyler use up the last of the water balloons, except the one she has in her hand.

She grins, tightens her grasp on the balloon slightly, and then presses it against the very back of Castle's head. The water from within the now popped balloon follows the curve of his head, the lines of his hair until he's standing up and the water has dripped down and into his face, into his eyes and mouth and over his nose and he's dripping. And now, it's her that's laughing, backing away from his amused but predatory gaze.

He ends up catching her waist, fingers pinching her sides until she's laughing and writhing in his arms, trying to push him away so he'll give up on this tickling torture, but she's unsuccessful. She might be strong, but when he wants to be, he's stronger, and soon enough he has her pinned against the wall, fingers drifting across and plucking at the sensitive skin of her waist as she laughs and feebly tries to fight him off.

Eventually, he stops, his hands settling on her hips as he presses a gentle kiss to her lips. Her chest continues to rumble with involuntary giggles. He's laughing, too, now, his head resting against her shoulder, her hands tangled in his hair. Brooklyn and Sam are both lying on the floor, Sam's arm draped across her daughter's stomach. Tyler is sitting, back against the wall, Braden sitting nearby with his head on the edge of the bucket. She can't see Elizabeth and Brody, which has her assuming they're still on the elevator.

And laughter fills the otherwise empty hall, the aftermath of a spontaneous water balloon fight.

* * *

She ends up lending, well, giving a shirt to each Elizabeth and Sam, handing each of them a rather old t-shirt and a hair elastic to tie up their wet hair. Sam slips off her black tank top and grey overshirt, draping them over her arm, and slips on a dark blue shirt she's fairly sure she's had since college, then pulls her hair into an easy high ponytail. Elizabeth takes off her dark purple blouse and pulls on a light pink shirt she's never worn, one she got at some breast cancer fundraising thing, pulls her hair into a low ponytail.

She suddenly feels out of place wearing her moderately tight yoga pants and her long sleeved shirt that makes it look like she's ready to break into a bank. But she politely asks them to leave before she changes, planning on keeping her green skin a secret from them. She changes into a red long-sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans that she would normally wear to work, pulling her hair into a ponytail to hide her neck, even though that will most definitely leave her having to explain the green.

When she comes out of her bedroom, Sam and Elizabeth already have their children in their coats, bags on their shoulders, the four kids with whom she spent the weekend ready to leave. And she's shocked to find that, even though this weekend was...hectic, to say the least, she's actually going to miss them. And that very thought comes with a pang that has her realizing that this weekend, as hard as it was, has worked.

Of course, Sam and Elizabeth ask about her green hair. She tells them she offered, covering for the kids even though she really shouldn't. She tells them that she told them she was looking for a change and asked them what color she should dye her hair, which she had planned on doing next week, but that the kids had asked her to do it _right then, _so they could see her green hair, too. So she did. They look suspicious, but don't press the issue, and for that she's glad, because she _knows _Castle doesn't believe her.

They don't stand around and talk for long. Sam and Elizabeth ask about their plans to have a baby, explain that Castle told them everything, the entire reason for this weekend. She smiles shyly, feels Castle pull her against him and feels his chest rise as he goes to speak, but she cuts him off, telling the two other women that she's still unsure, but it's looking good. Castle responds with a kiss to her head, a squeeze to her side, and she feels the love radiating off him.

And when Sam and Elizabeth ask their children if they're ready to go, Brooklyn is the one to suggest that she should get a hug. And, surprisingly, all three boys seem to agree, because they eagerly nod their heads. She feels a smile tugging at her cheeks, pride bubbling up within her, in reaction to the fact that she actually _did _win the kids over. Whether it was allowing them to ruin a bunch of her clothes or telling them about her own rebellious past that did it, she really doesn't care.

She releases Castle and bends down so she's at eye level with Brooke, opening her arms. The little girl practically runs into them, mumbling a goodbye in her neck. She presses her palms against Brooklyn's back, enjoys the feel of the little girl in her arms until Brooke begins to pull away. And that's when she feels it, the sprinkle of _something _on her head, hears the laughter of the kids, and then she finds herself pressing her hand against her head as Brooklyn leaves her arms. When she holds her hand up in front of her, it's covered in sparkles.

Braden ends up running into her arms before she can stand back up, and she feels him pat her back repeatedly as he buries his face in her neck. She knows now, though, that this is probably just the setup for yet another prank, so she doesn't return the hug like she did the first time. And when Braden pulls away, she feels Castle reach down and pluck something off her back, holding up a sign that reads simply _**Stupid. **_She rolls her eyes at that, goes to stand up until she feels Tyler in her arms and all she can do is curse herself for not being faster.

Tyler's hands fall lower, on her upper legs, and his prank ends up being an electric shock right between her butt cheeks, created by one of those buzzers that they sell at magic shops. It makes her jerk in surprise. He shrugs as he walks away, and Sam taps the side of his head like some kind of mild punishment. And then Brody is in her arms and she really has no choice but to accept his hug, so she finds herself hugging him back even though she knows something's up.

She lets her eyes fall closed the minute she feels it, having already been expecting it. It thick and gooey in her hair, splitting to avoid her ponytail, dripping down her neck, following the forward curve of her head until it's down in her eyes and stuck in her eyebrows and lashes and when she hesitantly opens her eyes, she's greeted by the sight of lime green slime that is now coating her head and oozing down onto her shirt.

Elizabeth begins scolding Brody, and with a quick and apologetic goodbye, Elizabeth and her sons and Sam and her children are all gone, leaving her crouching on the floor and Castle standing next to her.

He crouches down next to her. "So, is that a yes on getting over your kid phobia?" he asks.

She turns to glare at him. "Give me a week," she tells him before standing up to take yet _another _shower.

* * *

**Thank you to my beta, la z boy, and everyone who has read this story.**


	12. Epilogue

**Richard Castle.**

* * *

He's sitting in his office, working on the next chapter of his newest Nikki Heat novel, a case of writer's block leaving his document mostly blank, a deadline, reinforced relentlessly by Gina, keeping him sitting here instead of joining Kate in their bedroom. Well, the deadline and Gina _and_ Kate's insistence that his career is more important than sex, an argument with which he wholeheartedly disagrees.

He's still sitting there five minutes later, his document looking the exact same, when he inevitably closes the document and then the lid of his laptop and turns towards the bedroom, planning on finding Kate, only to find that she's standing in the doorway between his office and their bedroom wearing short pyjama shorts and and a baggy white t-shirt, leaning her head against the wall, arms crossed over her chest, hip popped out, a sly smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

His eyes meet hers and he takes in the sight of her. The white t-shirt hangs off her body, and, more than attuned to her body, he can tell that she's not wearing a bra underneath her tantalizingly thin, worn shirt. The shorts don't even reach the middle of her thigh, the way her one knee is bent making the hem of one leg ride up even farther, bunching up in the crease between pelvis and thigh.

He looks back up at her face and notices something else, something completely different. Her face is bare of any makeup, the natural glow of her skin shining through, the natural, earthy tone of her eyes in no way accentuated by mascara or eye shadow or eye line. But, more importantly, her face isn't green, either. And neither are her legs and he's pretty sure that if he could, he would see that her back is returned to normal now, too. It brings a smile to his face as he realizes that the slow fade of the green tint to her skin is finally complete, the green gone.

She pushes herself up and off the door, takes slow, calculated steps towards him, adding an extra sway to her hips as she does. She rolls her toes against the floor, lets her arms fall to her sides until she stands right in front of him, head still tilted to the side. She curls her toes against the wood floor, pushing her knee out so it brushes against his.

He reaches out, curls his fingers around her waist, forces her to turn around with gentle pressure against her hip. She turns willingly, though, accepting it as his hands land on her hips, fingers squeezing the flesh there. Her hair is still damp from her shower, so is the skin of her stomach against which his thumbs brush when they peek under the hem of t-shirt. Slowly, he pulls her down and onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her middle.

He brushes her short hair off the back of her neck, presses his lips to the ridge of her vertebrae. "The green's gone," he murmurs, letting his lips brush against the skin of her back, relishing in the goosebumps his breath makes rise on her skin.

"_Finally_," she responds. She pulls away from him, and he smiles as his lips release her vertebrae. She smiles, bright and happy as she turns on his lap, props her legs up over the arm of his office chair. She presses her lips to his gently, soft and loving, her hand cradling his jaw and when she pulls away, her smile is wide and bright and it actually confuses him because she looks so impossibly happy. And then she speaks again. "It's been a week," she says, and it's a whisper, almost shy, "so we can, uh, talk about it."

He can't help the smile that tugs at his lips. "Really?" he asks, and her brows furrow for a moment before she nods, almost hesitantly, like she thinks _he _doesn't want to talk about it. But the truth is, he does, it's the reason he brought it up in the first place, but after hearing about her weekend with the kids, he had actually expected the topic to be off the table altogether. And now, here she is, initiating a conversation about having a baby. "Well then," he says, slowly shifting her on his lap so her feet are on the ground, "you need to get off my lap, because you _know _I can't have a serious conversation with you on my lap like this."

She grins and stands up, holding her hand out to him, which he takes, letting her help him to his feet. She leads him into the living room, hand still holding his, and hesitates at the edge of the living room rug. Sensing her nerves, he squeezes her hand, leads her over to the couch, waits for her to sit down near one armrest before taking a seat at the opposite end of the couch, squeezing her fingers again.

"So, Tyler, Braden, Brody and Brooke didn't completely turn you off having a baby?" he asks, beginning the _actual _conversation that she initiated. "Because I swear, Kate, I wouldn't blame you. Sam and Liz warned me that they were rambunctious, but I never thought they would go _that _far," he promises, eyes trailing down her newly dyed hair that once again resembles her natural hair color, the green eradicated.

She shifts closer to him, a smile coming across her face. "When they first started with the..._pranks_," she begins, "I really thought they would. I mean, I really thought that weekend would end with me deciding to practice abstinence or something to avoid having a baby." She pauses for a moment, a chuckle escaping her throat. "Well, not abstinence. I don't think we could manage that, but maybe, like, religiously taking my pill and never having sex without a condom."

She chuckles again, pulling her lower lips between her teeth. "Anyway, point is, I really thought that this weekend would ruin the idea of having kids for me," she admits. "But it didn't. It actually… It did the opposite, Castle. I… It taught me that I can handle it. You know, they were _horrible _and _mean _and had a great time making a fool out of me, but I handled it, I survived and they survived and everything was okay. Well, everything but my hair."

She shifts closer, pushing herself up and onto her knees, the fingers of her free hand reaching over to rest on his knee. "Castle, I did it. And our kids...they would probably not be that bad. I mean, with your genes, they would be pranksters who would talk nonstop, but with _my _genes mixed in, they would be a little better than _that_, most of the time. And I… I think it would be great," she admits.

He can't help but shift closer to her, reaching out to rest his hand on her thigh. "Kate?" he asks, and even to his own ear, his voice sounds like a scared whisper, like a little boy. But this conversation is so much more important than any conversation a little boy could possibly have, because they're deciding whether or not they'll try for a baby, whether or not they'll be parents, and that amazes him.

Her lower lip is once again pulled between her teeth and her responding nod is almost frantic, quick and slight but most definitely there. Her eyes gleam like they do before they fill with tears, and part of him struggles to believe that she's _this _emotional about all this, about this decision, but at the same time he's amazed by how sweet and compassionate and sensitive she is, which still surprises him, even though he's seen this side of her for years, since the day she showed up at his doorstep, soaked and open for him, open to a relationship and a future.

"You have to say it, Kate," he whispers, and his fingers wrap around hers even tighter, the hand on her thigh catching her other hand, and he holds both her hands in his, brushing his thumb against the ridges of the bones of her hand. "This is all your choice, okay? You know I want children with you. You know I want this. But this is your body, your fears, your apprehension. It's your choice. It's _all _your choice."

She nods. "I know, Castle," she whispers, and she shimmies forward again, fingers squeezing his. "I know it's my choice. And this, babe, I _want_ this. I want a family. I want us to have a baby," she promises. She releases his hands and reaches up to cradle his face in her palms, brushing the thumbs across his cheeks. "I want us to have a baby, Castle."

He reaches out, cradles the curtain of her ribcage in his palms. "You really want this? You're not scared of...changing diapers or playing princess or dressing up as a Disney princess for Halloween?" he asks, pulling her closer to him. "You want to throw away the condoms and stop taking your pills and actually try? You… You want to have my baby… _Our_ baby, Kate?"

She nods, leaning even closer. "Yeah, Rick, yes. I want it all. I want to change diapers and play princess and dress up as a Disney princess for Halloween. I want to throw away the condoms and stop taking my pill. I want to get pregnant, Castle. I want to pee on plastic sticks and, fuck, I want to have morning sickness and every other fucking symptom if it means we get to have a baby. Our baby, Castle, _that's_ what I want."

And with that, he pulls her against him, presses his lips to hers, wraps an arm around her waist and presses her chest against his. Her thighs straddle his, fingers threading through his hair, a desperation in their kiss like he's never felt before. A desire. A love. A promise. The promise that they'll have more, that they'll, one day soon, have a baby, a _family_. The promise is locked between their lips, sealed by their kiss, until he gently pushes her away.

She frowns. "What?" she asks, and then she presses another kiss to his lips, this one harder than before, filled with more lust than love, more need than promise. He gently pushes her away again, fingers locked around her ribs, holding her only a couple inches away. "Babe, we're not going to make a baby if you keep pushing me away like this," she points out, a teasing lilt to her voice

"I _know_," he tells her, squeezing her sides and making her chuckle until he's lifting her off his lap and onto her feet and she's frowning in confusion all over again. "Come on. We have to do something," he tells her as he wraps his fingers around hers and leads her back through his office and into their bedroom, all the way to her nightstand. He reaches down and quickly pulls the drawer open, reaching in to retrieve the box of condoms they store there. He holds it up for her see.

Her brows furrow in confusion. "Wasn't the whole point of the conversation we _just _had was for us to _stop _using condoms?" she asks. She reaches out for the box, plucks it from his hand and tosses it back into the drawer. "You know, I really thought you would understand this concept, considering you already have a daughter," she says, and he rolls his eyes.

"It's _symbolic, _Kate," he tells her, reaching back into the drawer to grab the box of condoms again. "And before you start talking about how you don't believe in symbols like this, I do, so please, just do this. For me?" he asks, turning towards her, flashing her his puppy dog eyes, holding the box up in front of him. She rolls her eyes at him, but nods, silently giving him permission and he smiles.

He leads her to the other side of the bed, reaches into the drawer of his nightstand and pulls up the few foil packets that are within it, the ones they leave there for when she's impatient and doesn't want to crawl over to _her _side of the bed to actually get a condom. He hands them to her and she drops them into the box, completely uninterested as he leads her into the bathroom.

"Grab your pills," he tells her, motioning to the mirror that hangs above the sink, the one behind which they hide all the medication and stuff they keep in the apartment. She eyes him suspiciously before reaching up and retrieving her birth control pills from the cabinet. She holds them out to him, brows raised like she's expecting him to grab them, but he shakes his head, reaches down to grab the trash can from the vanity's cabinet. "You're going to get rid of those," he tells her.

"Your big symbolic thing is for me to throw my birth control pills in the garbage?" she asks. "This is why you interrupted sex? So we could actually throw away contraception?" she asks. He nods, and at the disbelieving tilt of her brows, he drops the box of condoms into the trash can to prove how serious he is. Her jaw all but drops, eyes falling to the trash can, and then she looks back up at him. "Seriously?"

"_Yes_, Kate," he says, motioning to the garbage can with a flick of his wrist. "Come on, just throw them out, and then we can get on with what _you _want to do, okay?" He smiles hopefully, tilts his head expectantly and waits.

"_Fine,_" she relents eventually, and she drops the small packet of pills into the trash can before looking back up at him, looking up at him with raised brows and crossed arms and a popped hip. "You happy now? I played into your _symbolism _stuff, so can we _please _actually work on...making a baby?"

He chuckles. "You really want this," he says, and she nods quickly, reaching out to take his hand and lead him into the bedroom. He follows willingly, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her against him. "You know, Kate, this won't be fast and desperate like you wanted on the couch," he whispers into her ear, slowing her steps with the weight of him against her back. "I'm going to worship you."

She leans back, rests her head on his shoulder, pausing their journey to the bed. "I know," she whispers to him. She turns in his arms wraps hers around his neck, as his wrap around her waist. "We just decided to have a baby, Castle," she says, a smile tugging at her lips as she speaks. "I just told you I want us to have a baby. Trust me, I know. That's what I want, too."

He leans down and presses his lips to her head, hands pulling her hips against his. And then his lips meet hers, their kiss sealing the promise all over again.

* * *

**And that's a wrap, folks. This story got mixed reviews, but I had fun writing it and I know for a fact that the prompter enjoyed it, so I hope at least a few people liked it, too. If not, well, whatever, tbh.**

**Thank you to la z boy for all your help with this. It's greatly appreciated. **


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